evil calibre?

[Bill Davidsen]

Stephen Gallagher wrote:
> On Fri, 2012-05-11 at 14:11 +0200, Andras Simon wrote:
>> Isn't there an unwritten law prohibiting document viewers changing the
>> documents they open?
>>
>> If there is, ebook-viewer, part of calibre, doesn't respect it:
>>
>> diff -r m/META-INF/calibre_bookmarks.txt m1/META-INF/calibre_bookmarks.txt
>> 1c1
>> <  calibre_current_page_bookmark^7# *:eq(0)>  *:eq(1)>  *:eq(0)>
>> *:eq(4)>  *:eq(6) |0.19047619047619047
>> ---
>>> calibre_current_page_bookmark^15# *:eq(0)>  *:eq(1)>  *:eq(0)>  *:eq(8)>  *:eq(43) |0.3619791666666667
>>
>> The directories that I compared contain unzipped versions of the same
>> epub file before and after an invocation of ebook-viewer. Probably
>> calibre_bookmarks.txt was put in the epub file by ebok-viewer in the
>> first place.
>>
>> Now one could say, that this is harmless, because it doesn't change
>> the way the epub file will appear in any reader. But it changes
>> filesize and timestamp, enough to make backup  software notice.
>>
>> Hopefully, unchecking the "Remember the current page when quitting" in
>> the Preferences is a workaround, but even then, it's just a
>> workaround. ebook-viewer is welcome to have its own little database of
>> bookmarks, but shouldn't annotate my books.
>
>
> This would best be reported to Calibre's upstream bug tracker:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre
>
>
> They're a very responsive upstream, so I imagine you'll get a prompt
> answer.
>
I can see value in having the bookmarks be a separate thing, it allows multiple 
readers against a single document, which might be shared in a business 
environment, or even read-only. Being able to have a single original document 
and let everyone have their own personal current page and bookmarks and possibly 
annotation, would be a good thing. Unfortunately that sounds like a fairly major 
change to the existing behavior, so it may not be practical.


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot