Settings display in foreign language - possible cause conversion error?

BruceBick · 12-09-2011, 11:33 AM

Hi everyone, newbie here. My problem is as follows ...
I have an e-book created in html which I want to convert to epub and upload on lulu.com. It won't pass validation and I'm getting an error about publication date I can't seem to shake.

Let me backtrack a minute to say I am using Calibre in Thailand and although I have the language setting set to English (in Calibre), the settings within Calibre (for e.g. date) are displaying in Thai language.

1. How do I change this so everything in Calibre displays in English
2. Could the fact that the date is being created in Thai language be causing the validation problem?

Thanks in anticipation of your wise responses!

BruceBick · 12-13-2011, 07:03 AM

Another thought occurred to me ... rather than the language issue, could it be that the default manner in which the date is displayed in Calibre is causing the date-related error in the epub-validation process. I read somewhere that the date format required for validation is YYYY -dd -MM, which is not the default setting in Calibre. Any thoughts on either of these possibilities?

BruceBick · 12-15-2011, 03:56 AM

Aww ... c'mon ... someone throw me a bone

theducks · 12-15-2011, 06:39 AM

Wishbone

No answer usually means. No clue.
Part might be no one reading has a Thai rig (other than you) or understands Thai.

Have you used Tweak to look at the OPF file inside the EPUB?
BTW What version number of Calibre?

DoctorOhh · 12-15-2011, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceBick

I have an e-book created in html which I want to convert to epub and upload on lulu.com. It won't pass validation and I'm getting an error about publication date I can't seem to shake.

ePub validation isn't a calibre concern and you may get better advice posting in the ePub forum or the Sigil forum. Also there is a decent wiki section here at mobileread on ePub that may shed some light on your problem.

That said there is a calibre command line tool epub-fix.exe that should still be able to fix the date problem. Check out this thread starting at post 6.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceBick

1. How do I change this so everything in Calibre displays in English

I have no idea.

Good Luck.

ldolse · 12-16-2011, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceBick

1. How do I change this so everything in Calibre displays in English

At a guess, the system settings on your machine are set to use the Thai regional settings, and Qt (Calibre's GUI Library) is inheriting this system setting. Set your computer to whatever region you're most comfortable with and see if Calibre changes to match. (restarts may be required).

BruceBick · 12-17-2011, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Wishbone

No answer usually means. No clue.
Part might be no one reading has a Thai rig (other than you) or understands Thai.

Have you used Tweak to look at the OPF file inside the EPUB?
BTW What version number of Calibre?

Noted with thanks.

1. IF language settings are the cause of the validation problem, then any language other than English would presumably cause the same problem (or at least languages that don't use the english alphabet). If there is a forum user living in a non-English speaking country who has used Calibre to produce an epub then I would be interested to hear whether they had validation problems or not.

Just to recap my OP, I have selected English language in Calibre but some settings have detected the country in which I am situated and have automatically reverted to Thai language

2. I assume you mean the 'Tweak' function in Calibre. Yes I did have a fiddle with it before posting, but couldn't find anything to help the problem. But then again I am a novice user so quite possibly a fix was there in front of me, without me realising

3. I'm using the latest available version of Calibre

BruceBick · 12-17-2011, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

ePub validation isn't a calibre concern and you may get better advice posting in the ePub forum or the Sigil forum. Also there is a decent wiki section here at mobileread on ePub that may shed some light on your problem.

That said there is a calibre command line tool epub-fix.exe that should still be able to fix the date problem. Check out this thread starting at post 6.

Noted with thanks.
Chicken or egg. If the machinations of Calibre are causing the validation problem then Calibre users (who may have previously encountered the same problem & found a fix) are perhaps the best people to ask initially.
I will try the command line tool, thanks - and we shall see what happens

theducks · 12-17-2011, 11:17 PM

You are definitely asking in the right place

Being mono-lingual, I would never have triggered your issue. All I can offer is ideas to track down the error (and maybe the cause). The code Gurus will probably then have a fix once they know exactly all the steps (and settings) that will reproduce an error.

Your initial report was lots better than some we see here

.
If you have a small sample (pre conversion) and the same file converted that fails to validate, you might open an issue on the Bug tracker (link in the help) outline you system configuration, and the exact steps you took.
Attach the files to the bug report.

kovidgoyal · 12-17-2011, 11:24 PM

The validation error is a red herring, it is a bug in the validation tool. As dwannthny pointed out, you can use epub-fix to break your epub so that it passes validation.

And language settings have absolutely zero impact on epub output.

BruceBick · 12-18-2011, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldolse

At a guess, the system settings on your machine are set to use the Thai regional settings, and Qt (Calibre's GUI Library) is inheriting this system setting. Set your computer to whatever region you're most comfortable with and see if Calibre changes to match. (restarts may be required).

Noted with thanks. The 'puter was bought and initially used in Oz but I did change settings such as date/time at some stage, so I'll look into that

BruceBick · 12-18-2011, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The validation error is a red herring, it is a bug in the validation tool. As dwannthny pointed out, you can use epub-fix to break your epub so that it passes validation.

And language settings have absolutely zero impact on epub output.

Noted with lotsa thanks Kovid. I was kinda hoping you might chime in. I will try epub-fix - which will hopefully be fairly idiot-proof

nicabod · 12-18-2011, 04:06 AM

In very-general terms, this kind of problem fits into the category called internationalization, an atypically-long word that is often typed simply as "i18n" (there are 20 letters in the word). A related topic is localization, typed as "l10n", with only rare thought of the biggest cats.

As well, Unicode and UTF-8 are related topics.

There are standards for representing dates, in particular those defined by the ISO.

Using the Gregorian calendar (common in Europe and countries with European influence), two typical ways of representing dates would be
Dec. 18, 2011 and
18 Dec. 2011. The first is popular in the USA, while the second is common elsewhere.

Another pair of forms is
12/18/11 and
18/12/11; the first is primarily US practice, and the second is for the rest of those who use the Gregorian calendar.

It's a good idea to show the three elements of a typical date in hierarchical order; US practice does not follow that.

The concise format "20111218" unfortunately can be ambiguous for days of the month that are 11 or less; I don't think "20111812" would be part of the ISO standard. (I hope not!)

In industry, date codes are sometimes in the format "yyww" where y's are the less-significant days of the year, and w's are the week of the year (iirc 53 max., at times); there are standards for defining weeks to avoid ambiguity.

Best of luck solving your problem!

I think the Thai alphabet is beautiful.

Best regards,
[nb]
amateur internationalist

12-09-2011, 11:33 AM	#1
BruceBick Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Thailand Device: none	Settings display in foreign language - possible cause conversion error? Hi everyone, newbie here. My problem is as follows ... I have an e-book created in html which I want to convert to epub and upload on lulu.com. It won't pass validation and I'm getting an error about publication date I can't seem to shake. Let me backtrack a minute to say I am using Calibre in Thailand and although I have the language setting set to English (in Calibre), the settings within Calibre (for e.g. date) are displaying in Thai language. 1. How do I change this so everything in Calibre displays in English 2. Could the fact that the date is being created in Thai language be causing the validation problem? Thanks in anticipation of your wise responses!

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12-13-2011, 07:03 AM	#2
BruceBick Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Thailand Device: none	Another thought occurred to me ... rather than the language issue, could it be that the default manner in which the date is displayed in Calibre is causing the date-related error in the epub-validation process. I read somewhere that the date format required for validation is YYYY -dd -MM, which is not the default setting in Calibre. Any thoughts on either of these possibilities?

12-15-2011, 03:56 AM	#3
BruceBick Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Thailand Device: none	Aww ... c'mon ... someone throw me a bone

12-15-2011, 06:39 AM	#4
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,001 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Wishbone No answer usually means. No clue. Part might be no one reading has a Thai rig (other than you) or understands Thai. Have you used Tweak to look at the OPF file inside the EPUB? BTW What version number of Calibre?

12-17-2011, 11:17 PM	#9
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,001 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	You are definitely asking in the right place Being mono-lingual, I would never have triggered your issue. All I can offer is ideas to track down the error (and maybe the cause). The code Gurus will probably then have a fix once they know exactly all the steps (and settings) that will reproduce an error. Your initial report was lots better than some we see here . If you have a small sample (pre conversion) and the same file converted that fails to validate, you might open an issue on the Bug tracker (link in the help) outline you system configuration, and the exact steps you took. Attach the files to the bug report.

12-17-2011, 11:24 PM	#10
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,299 Karma: 27111240 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The validation error is a red herring, it is a bug in the validation tool. As dwannthny pointed out, you can use epub-fix to break your epub so that it passes validation. And language settings have absolutely zero impact on epub output.

12-18-2011, 04:06 AM	#13
nicabod Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: B&N Nook, refurbed	In very-general terms, this kind of problem fits into the category called internationalization, an atypically-long word that is often typed simply as "i18n" (there are 20 letters in the word). A related topic is localization, typed as "l10n", with only rare thought of the biggest cats. As well, Unicode and UTF-8 are related topics. There are standards for representing dates, in particular those defined by the ISO. Using the Gregorian calendar (common in Europe and countries with European influence), two typical ways of representing dates would be Dec. 18, 2011 and 18 Dec. 2011. The first is popular in the USA, while the second is common elsewhere. Another pair of forms is 12/18/11 and 18/12/11; the first is primarily US practice, and the second is for the rest of those who use the Gregorian calendar. It's a good idea to show the three elements of a typical date in hierarchical order; US practice does not follow that. The concise format "20111218" unfortunately can be ambiguous for days of the month that are 11 or less; I don't think "20111812" would be part of the ISO standard. (I hope not!) In industry, date codes are sometimes in the format "yyww" where y's are the less-significant days of the year, and w's are the week of the year (iirc 53 max., at times); there are standards for defining weeks to avoid ambiguity. Best of luck solving your problem! I think the Thai alphabet is beautiful. Best regards, [nb] amateur internationalist

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