format of Saved Searches file

[Vroni]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Also note that if you always leave "All Files" selected you can override/force search to operate only on the current file by holding the Ctrl key down while clicking on the action.

Didn't know that, thx for the tip.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Unless we can envision a situation where individual config files might need to be something other than utf-8, I like the idea of the latter, one-size-fits-all approach, myself.

I'll try to do some testing on Linux and Windows soon.

Please let me know if you want me to push this change to master. Otherwise I will revert my build tree.

Thanks,

KevinH

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Please let me know if you want me to push this change to master. Otherwise I will revert my build tree.

Thanks,

KevinH

I say go ahead. I haven't had a chance to test on Windows and Linux yet, but I don't foresee any problems. In the off chance that there are some, it looks like we can change it back pretty easily.

EDIT: actually ... if you push the change, it will automatically build on Appveyor and I'll probably be able to download/test it on Windows this afternoon.

[KevinH]

Just pushed that change to master.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Just pushed that change to master.

I compiled Sigil from master on my Linux machine and it looks like your fix works fine.

I checked the folder that contains the Sigil .ini files and all escaped characters were replaced with UTF-8 characters.

I also created and saved a new Saved Search entry with accented and Arabic characters, which were also saved as UTF-8 characters.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Just pushed that change to master.

A quick test on Windows 10 shows no problems (Windows 10). I did basically the same tests that you described earlier in the thread. Sigil actually converted my ini files to utf-8 whenever Sigil opened. There was no need to save or close.

The only issue I see that may trip a few people up, is that some of the default Saved Searches (convert entities to characters and vice-versa) can look like the Replace/Find field is empty after converting the file to utf-8. Anything with invisible space characters can look empty now. But that will also only affect the manual editing of those files. The Saved Search editor dialog has always looked like there's nothing in fields with invisible unicode characters (even when they were stored in the ini files as escape coded).

The good news is that they can still add those invisible characters as escaped hex codes when manually editing those files. And Sigil will convert them.

They've always had to enter unicode characters in the Saved Search Editor Dialog: escaped hex codes entered there have always ended up double-escaped in the ini files.

Long story short: those who only edit Saved Searches through Sigil's dialog should notice no difference in behavior whatsoever. And those who edit the files manually should have an easier time of it!

[DiapDealer]

This change COULD adversely affect those who run two different versions of Sigil on the same machine (but those folks typically setup up a second prefs folder via environment variable so they can have separate prefs).

It could also affect anyone who might need to roll back to a previous version of Sigil for whatever reason. There'll need to be a warning on the release that preferences files are going to updated and may be incompatible with older versions of Sigil from that point on. Prefs should be backed up before updating to be safe.

[KevinH]

I agree completely. When we do the next release, we strongly urge people to make back-up copies of all their current Sigil related ini files just in case they want or need to revert back. Perhaps we even include a bash script that does that for Linux and Mac Users and a simple bat script for Windows users or maybe a little python script that runs on all platforms.

That way people can revert if they need to but the bulk of the people should be just fine.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This change COULD adversely affect those who run two different versions of Sigil on the same machine (but those folks typically setup up a second prefs folder via environment variable so they can have separate prefs).

It could also affect anyone who might need to roll back to a previous version of Sigil for whatever reason. There'll need to be a warning on the release that preferences files are going to updated and may be incompatible with older versions of Sigil from that point on. Prefs should be backed up before updating to be safe.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

I compiled Sigil from master on my Linux machine and it looks like your fix works fine.

I checked the folder that contains the Sigil .ini files and all escaped characters were replaced with UTF-8 characters.

I also created and saved a new Saved Search entry with accented and Arabic characters, which were also saved as UTF-8 characters.

Thanks for testing!

Kevin

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It could also affect anyone who might need to roll back to a previous version of Sigil for whatever reason. There'll need to be a warning on the release that preferences files are going to updated and may be incompatible with older versions of Sigil from that point on. Prefs should be backed up before updating to be safe.

Yes, being able to rollback or work on older versions is important.

And who knows what strange bugs may creep in (like that spellchecking cursor jumping bug). Very rare they occur, but over the years I sometimes ran two versions side-by-side.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This change COULD adversely affect those who run two different versions of Sigil on the same machine (but those folks typically setup up a second prefs folder via environment variable so they can have separate prefs).

Are you sure "those folks typically setup [...] via environment variable"?

If anything, I would say they may install a new version into a second folder. But how many people are messing around with their environment variables?

Originally Posted by KevinH

That way people can revert if they need to but the bulk of the people should be just fine.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Are you sure "those folks typically setup [...] via environment variable"?

Pretty sure, yes. In fact, that's why the environment variable added: people wanted a way to run two instances of Sigil that didn't share the same preferences. We provided.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

If anything, I would say they may install a new version into a second folder. But how many people are messing around with their environment variables?

I don't know the numbers. I suspect very few. I also suspect those few who DO install a second instance, aren't doing so willy-nilly, and aren't "afeard of wrangling an env var or two" to make it work correctly.