[Closed] Please help beta test calibre 7

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by capink

… which might actually make me switch back to Windows, something I am starting to think about more lately since I am hearing good things about wsl.

I used to hear good things about MS Services for UNIX too (and used it). You might as well run Linux of choice in a VM or run the few Windows programs you need (if you need any) on the SAME VM sw (Vbox) on a native Linux.
WSL is for people that have to run native Windows, often a corporate decision.

WSL used to (and MS SFU before it used to be native using the NT4.0 Posix subsystem) be native, but now WSL 2 uses the "latest and greatest in virtualization technology" to run its Linux kernel inside of a lightweight utility virtual machine (VM). They claim it's faster to load than a full VM. But Win XP (very fast), 7 & 10 are pretty fast to load even from VMs stored on HDD though the VBox sw and my Linux OS is on an SSD.
https://www.makeuseof.com/linux-virtual-machine-or-wsl/
They don't cover should I run Linux native and use Windows in a VM.

I suppose if you want Windows games you need native windows, ironically especially XP as Oracle removed Direct 3D support from their XP driver, so quite ordinary games like Scrabble stopped working. There are so many dependencies that going back to earlier Vbox with Direct 3D on XP on Linux Mint 20.x or 21.x seems nearly impossible.

Running win 3.x in 286 mode can be done on DosBox but I can't see how to run Win9x or Win 3.11 etc with win32s in a VM? My old 386s and 486 are all gone.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Maybe some Windows Update did it.

Nope

The improvements in Word load times have been incremental and apparent after Office updates, 2019 loads faster than 2016, loads faster than 2010, loads faster than 2007. And the improvements to epub-tools have followed suite, it's written in C++ and requires the VS 2010 runtime package.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by capink

Microsoft office is probably written in C/C++, so re-writing it in python would make it slower, no matter what improvements they make to python.

My suggestion MS might be rewriting Office in python was deliberately flippant.

Originally Posted by capink

But seeing that python has a strong foothold in data analysis, they are integrating it with office more and more to leverage its capabilities and libraries, which is good move for both.

Hopefully we will reach a point where we can write macros using python, which might actually make me switch back to Windows, something I am starting to think about more lately since I am hearing good things about wsl.

I'm told by people doing it, that Office Addins, as opposed to Office Macros, can be written in Python today.

BR

[AstroCalibre]

Since I installed version 7 (Windows 10 operating system) often, when I'm in cover viewing mode, Calibre crashes and I'm forced to restart it. However, when I'm in list view, this doesn't happen. Have any of you experienced this behavior?
Thanks

[kovidgoyal]

What does crash mean? It closes? There's an error? Try running in debug mode (right click the preferences button and choose restart in debug mode). See if there is anything in the debug log after a crash.

[AstroCalibre]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

What does crash mean? It closes? There's an error? Try running in debug mode (right click the preferences button and choose restart in debug mode). See if there is anything in the debug log after a crash.

Thanks, Kovid,
I have attached a screenshot of the crash. I have to click on "Close the program" (chiudi il programma).

This is the debug log

ApplicationPaletteChange event ignored
Using calibre Qt style: True
calibre Log di debug
calibre 7.1  embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.11.5
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: it
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Count Pages (1, 13, 4) && EpubSplit (3, 6, 0) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 8) && Generate Cover (2, 3, 3) && Quality Check (1, 13, 6) && Search The Internet (1, 10, 4)
calibre 7.1  embedded-python: True
Windows-10-10.0.19045-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.19045')
Python 3.11.5
Windows: ('10', '10.0.19045', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: it
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Count Pages (1, 13, 4) && EpubSplit (3, 6, 0) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 8) && Generate Cover (2, 3, 3) && Quality Check (1, 13, 6) && Search The Internet (1, 10, 4)
QPA platform: windows
devicePixelRatio: 1.0
logicalDpi: 96.0 x 96.0
physicalDpi: 93.78461538461538 x 88.49032258064516
[0.00] Starting up...
[0.00] Showing splash screen...
[0.19] splash screen shown
[0.19] Initializing db...
[0.41] db initialized
[0.41] Constructing main UI...
[2.17] main UI initialized...
[2.17] Hiding splash screen

[kovidgoyal]

You mean it freezes and stops responding? Is this after you click a button like add books or similar?

[AstroCalibre]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You mean it freezes and stops responding? Is this after you click a button like add books or similar?

Yes, Calibre freezes and stops responding.
I noticed that this only happens when I am in cover view mode and expecially when I click the X button to close a search. Look at the attached image

[kovidgoyal]

Hmm doesnt reproduce on my windows machine. Is it only clicking the button or also when pressing esc ot clear the search?

[AstroCalibre]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Hmm doesnt reproduce on my windows machine. Is it only clicking the button or also when pressing esc ot clear the search?

I did some testing and noticed that Calibre only crashes when I click the X button. When pressing ESC for clear the search this doesn't happen (I didn't know you could press ESC to cancel a search. It will mean that from now on I will use the ESC key!
However, even when I press X button, Calibre does not always freeze. Let's say he does it at least one time in five.

[kovidgoyal]

Yes I tried it approx 20 times no freezes.

[ownedbycats]

I'm assuming this is another Qt screwup?

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I'm assuming this is another Qt screwup?

I've been getting that lately, as well. It occurs more often (if not only in this case, I'm not sure yet), after waking up laptop from hibernation power state

edit: in my case, that white rectangle covers the entire Calibre UI area. Only the title bar can be seen upon restoring the program from systray.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I'm assuming this is another Qt screwup?

Yep. I get the same thing.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I'm assuming this is another Qt screwup?

yup. if you have the calibre system tray icon enabled you can close to tray and restore to get it to render again.