What Features or Tools does Sigil Still Need Yet? - Page 9

Thasaidon · 02-04-2021, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinH

Perhaps, a basic MetaData plugin would be best that just handles the simplest cases but that works for epub2 and epub3.

That sounds like a very good idea.

It should be quick and easy to knock off (famous last words), and would be a useful complement, for the less technical, for the more comprehensive metaadata editor you are discussing.

DiapDealer · 02-04-2021, 08:51 PM

Not opposed to any of the suggestions, but... metadata is overrated. It's only ever important to the people it's important to. Which is relatively few in my experience. Being able to "quickly" grok/change epub metadata is not something I would personally prioritize.

Tex2002ans · 02-04-2021, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thasaidon

It should be quick and easy to knock off (famous last words), [...].

Yes, yes. Should only be a few simple lines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

[...] but... metadata is overrated. It's only ever important to the people it's important to. Which is relatively few in my experience. Being able to "quickly" grok/change epub metadata is not something I would personally prioritize.

I would argue editing metadata is one of the most important and common steps made. Definitely done (at least) once per book.

Creating a book from scratch:

Open book
Add Author/Title/Language
Do all further edits.

Opening/Editing a book from elsewhere:

Open book
Adjust Author/Title
Do all further edits.

(We all have ran across those dastardly books in a series that weren't named consistently!)

Also, when opening up EPUBs fresh from other tools:

Google Docs
Finereader
Word
Project Gutenberg
Archive.org
[...]

quickly understanding/parsing their metadata mess is a must.

This is especially important when you're trying to debug/correct.

Like in 2019, when I figured out "French" was accidentally the language in The Expanse book:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...06#post3888106

Proper lang is even more important now with multi-language spellchecking. (Red squigglies going berserk or wouldn't appear. Or Spellcheck List going awry [that's how I indirectly spotted bad lang metadata/markup in Calibre for all those years].)

And IF we're talking about super advanced users... who cares the most about metadata? All the advanced users Sigil is so clearly designed for.

So move that to the tippy top of your priority list!!!

DiapDealer · 02-04-2021, 10:08 PM

Yeah. Still not getting it. I don't edit metadata. Rarely even look at it at all. Consistent naming across series isn't something I've ever concerned myself with. Metadata is for curators. *shrug*

Hitch · 02-05-2021, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yeah. Still not getting it. I don't edit metadata. Rarely even look at it at all. Consistent naming across series isn't something I've ever concerned myself with. Metadata is for curators. *shrug*

And slaves. Just sayin'.

Hitch

DiapDealer · 02-05-2021, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hitch

And slaves. Just sayin'.

That's fair.

I did mention I'm not opposed to the suggestions RE metadata editing. I'm just not particularly motivated by them. If Kevin is willing to take them up, I'll be happy to help debug.

Hitch · 02-05-2021, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's fair.

I did mention I'm not opposed to the suggestions RE metadata editing. I'm just not particularly motivated by them. If Kevin is willing to take them up, I'll be happy to help debug.

Yes, I know. I'd equivocated about whether or not we'd add our voice to the request, b/c Kevin and Diap already have done so much for Sigil and...maybe it's a bit whingey, to complain about the metadata panel, but I feel compelled to agree with Tex2002ans' longer post about this. (The one that starts with "[t]here should at least be the 3 mandatory EPUB metadata...", to be clear about which Tex "longer post" I mean...)

I do recall feeling cranky about the change to the (original) metadata panel, but, firstly, me being cranky is hardly newsworthy or different, and secondly, I thought I was just resisting change and I'd warm up to it. But hell, these days, I find myself editing directly in the OPF, rather than using the metadata tool and that seems to say "this isn't working as intended."

Hitch

DiapDealer · 02-05-2021, 09:34 AM

For the required metadata, I've almost always edited the opf directly. Even back in the glory days of the metadata editor everybody loved.

Hitch · 02-05-2021, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

For the required metadata, I've almost always edited the opf directly. Even back in the glory days of the metadata editor everybody loved.

Yes, but, dahlink, you are a Nerd's Nerd. The rest of us in the Nerd Herd can only aspire to be you.

Hitch

Notjohn · 02-05-2021, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Creating a book from scratch:

Open book
Add Author/Title/Language
Do all further edits.

Shouldn't there be a step in there for writing the book?

DNSB · 02-05-2021, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Shouldn't there be a step in there for writing the book?

Perhaps that is part of the Do all further edits?

Tex2002ans · 02-06-2021, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notjohn

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Creating a book from scratch:

Open book
Add Author/Title/Language
Do all further edits.

Shouldn't there be a step in there for writing the book?

Clearly you just "Open Book", and poof, it's there!

JSWolf · 02-06-2021, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Clearly you just "Open Book", and poof, it's there!

If it's a romance book, it's written on opening with the random romance book generator plugin.

KevinH · 02-06-2021, 11:16 AM

Okay, I took a quick shot to see how doable a Human Readable form of the current MetaEditor was.

See the attached screenshot of the MetaData Editor after loading up our User's Guide (epub2 version) in my local build of Sigil (None of this is in master yet).

So it appears to be very doable.

That along with a Minimal MetaData front page should hopefully improve things.

Kevin

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinH

I think that Human Readable is doable. Right now we use the codes as they are language independent meaning when a user selects something in the Dialog you have to convert from a translated language specific string to a "code" at that time to build up the output.

In place of that, we could wait and do that once just as the metadata was being saved and once when it is loaded. Thereby keeping everything is its language specific form throughout the editing session.

I will play around with that approach first. Let's see just how doable that is without a complete redesign.

The key to this being an existing one to one mapping from language specific word to codes. This will be true for english but for all languages used in Sigil will some of the subtler differences result in different enough wordings. Many volunteer translators do not actually use the software itself.

Thanks for your input.

jcsalomon · 02-06-2021, 09:37 PM

Feature request re. dictionaries: Give me some way to associate a book with particular custom dictionaries.

I have a custom dictionary for this author’s preferred spellings (I use the Hunspell * notation for “deleting” the un-preferred spellings), and another one for the made-up words in this SF book, neither of which is appropriate for the other author’s other books.

It would be a convenience to activate a particular set of custom dictionaries when opening this book, and a different set in that book.

02-04-2021, 10:08 PM	#124
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,682 Karma: 205039118 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Yeah. Still not getting it. I don't edit metadata. Rarely even look at it at all. Consistent naming across series isn't something I've ever concerned myself with. Metadata is for curators. shrug Last edited by DiapDealer; 02-04-2021 at 10:13 PM.

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02-04-2021, 08:51 PM	#122
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,682 Karma: 205039118 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Not opposed to any of the suggestions, but... metadata is overrated. It's only ever important to the people it's important to. Which is relatively few in my experience. Being able to "quickly" grok/change epub metadata is not something I would personally prioritize.

02-05-2021, 09:34 AM	#128
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 28,682 Karma: 205039118 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	For the required metadata, I've almost always edited the opf directly. Even back in the glory days of the metadata editor everybody loved.

02-06-2021, 09:37 PM	#135
jcsalomon Zealot Posts: 98 Karma: 1204 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Bookari (née Mantano Reader) on Android; Kindle Fire HD	Feature request re. dictionaries: Give me some way to associate a book with particular custom dictionaries. I have a custom dictionary for this author’s preferred spellings (I use the Hunspell * notation for “deleting” the un-preferred spellings), and another one for the made-up words in this SF book, neither of which is appropriate for the other author’s other books. It would be a convenience to activate a particular set of custom dictionaries when opening this book, and a different set in that book.

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