[Plugin] PunctuationSmarten Sigil plugin

[DiapDealer]

At almost 2500 downloads, I can't imagine the attachment in the first post has somehow suddenly gone bad. Remember that you cannot rename the zip file before attempting to install. And remember that some download helper programs automatically rename the files they download.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Remember that you cannot rename the zip tile before attempting to install.

Thanks, the name had been lowercased.

[jeff47]

I might be old and out-of-touch, but I was surprised that this plugin didn't use the HTML entities. (eg, ‘ or &mdash. Wouldn't that be more portable and compliant with the html/xhtml format?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jeff47

I might be old and out-of-touch, but I was surprised that this plugin didn't use the HTML entities. (eg, ‘ or &mdash. Wouldn't that be more portable and compliant with the html/xhtml format?

Sigil itself doesn't preserve html entities, unless you add the ones you want to preserve in Sigil's preferences. Otherwise, it will convert all entities (but a few that are always allowed in xml) to unicode chars.

The plugin, however, does give you the option of checking/unchecking "Use Unicode Characters" depending on which you prefer. Unchecked would use entities (the plugin only uses numerical plugins, though). But unless you have Sigil itself configured to preserve those entities, they could still be converted to unicode characters later.

And no... entities are no more portable or compliant then unicode characters. The same unicode glyphs must be present in the font files used in order to properly render them, regardless. EPUB3's HTML5 doesn't recognize entities other than the required few to remain spec compliant.

[carmenchu]

Hello! Switching from win10 to ubuntu, I got Sigil Appimage working--link with icon and 'open with' in Calibre all in place.
Unfortunately, this plugin balks:

Status: failed

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/.mount_Sigil-PlGhpI/usr/share/sigil/plugin_launchers/python/launcher.py", line 141, in launch
    target_script = __import__(script_module)
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/carmen/.local/share/sigil-ebook/sigil/plugins/PunctuationSmarten/plugin.py", line 34, in <module>
    import tkinter
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tkinter'
Error: No module named 'tkinter'

Missing it badly!
Any hints?

[KevinH]

In Sigil AppImage, have you checked the box to use its embedded Python instead of an external Python. Any external Python might be missing tkinter but the one embedded inside the AppImage should work.

[DiapDealer]

That would be my guess too. Checking that box in the prefs should do the trick.

EDIT: I just noticed the part about "open with in calibre". If you're using the inherent Open With feature of calibre, I would expect no trouble (though I've never tested it myself -- a python program opening a C++ program that's launching an external python process is always going to be fraught with peril IMO), but if you're using the older, third-party Open With calibre plugin, then who knows? It had a long history of problems with Sigil in general. *shrug*

[carmenchu]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That would be my guess too. Checking that box in the prefs should do the trick.

EDIT: I just noticed the part about "open with in calibre". If you're using the inherent Open With feature of calibre, I would expect no trouble (though I've never tested it myself -- a python program opening a C++ program that's launching an external python process is always going to be fraught with peril IMO), but if you're using the older, third-party Open With calibre plugin, then who knows? It had a long history of problems with Sigil in general. *shrug*

Silly, but unexpected in a self-contained package...
And, yes--once Calibre integrated an inherent Open-With, I stopped using the plugin. Same with 'Search the Internet': plugins are fine for additional features, o mending poorly implemented ones (see Gimp 2 for a lot of examples) but IMHO, inherent features are much preferable--when they work. This particular plugin is, again IMHO, far better than the Calibre one--among other reasons, for the apos_exceptions file...
Thanks again, all of you!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by carmenchu

Silly, but unexpected in a self-contained package...

It might be a bit of overkill, but much like the macOS and Windows packages, we didn't want to limit Linux users to only the bundled Python modules for their plugin needs.

If one has never had a version of Sigil installed before, the "Use Bundled" box will be checked by default. Otherwise, the preexisting preferences take precedent.

Glad it's working for you!

[carmenchu]

Hello! Just trying to smarten punctuation in Sigil-2.6.2-x86_64.AppImage, and
* the selection window only allow adding files one at a time: neither CTRL nor SHIFT seem to work
* selecting files in the Book Browser has no effect.
As I am editing an epub with 74 chapters--a chapter per file--shall try
- creating check point
- merging all chapters
- running the plugin
- S&R

 <h2 --> <hr class="sigil_split_marker"/><h2

!!
Hope it works--but it seems a little involved...

[DiapDealer]

What Desktop Environment do you use? I find that THAT is typically the determining factor in whether or not multiple file selection works in tkinker. On macOS, Windows, and with Cinnamon, Gnome, and KDE/Plasma on Linux, the multiple selection works fine.

This came up somewhere else and I can't remember what the DE was in that case. Mate, maybe? I'm not sure this is limited to the AppImage to be honest. But it could be. We can't make everything work for every DE.

The best think I can probably do here is update the plugin to Qt for Python and completely ditch tk/tkinter.

[carmenchu]

Yes, I am running Ubuntu Mate--latest stable. Pity one doesn't find such problems until the distribution has been chosen and tried in actual use...
The work-around I mentioned solved the immediate need, but is both error-prone and time-consuming--but less so than running the plugin 74 times.
A solution would be much appreciated--or a warning of what Linux flavours work best with the appimage. I dare say many other windows 10 users on old but reliable computers are also trying a dual boot...

[DiapDealer]

I just need to knuckle down and redo the plugin with a PySide6 gui and all will be well. I'll see if anything can be done in the meantime as a more manageable workaround.

[carmenchu]

Thanks! Looking forward for the update.

[DiapDealer]

I have a working prototype that seems to be working fine. But it's going to need a lot of cleaning up and testing before I turn it loose. Turns out I'd had a pretty good head start on the GUI already!