Sigil and itunesmetadata.plist

[Enesco]

Hi,


When I edit an epub file with Sigil, the itunesmetadata.plist
(added by itunes) is removed. I can only cure this by extracting the file before editing + reinserting the file after editing - not very slick.

Is there any way to avoid this?

Or even better: is there an easy way to copy the contents to
the "Sigil"-metadata?

Kind regards,

[Valloric]

See issue 562.

[Enesco]

Thanks,


I suppose I could manually add the "itunesmetadata.plist" file
to the opf file.

I understand you blame Apple for the "bad behaviour",
but we can hardly hope to change that .


Kind regards,

[capidamonte]

Of course we can.

And even if we couldn't, going along with it is an additional wrong.

If you cooperate, you're just as responsible as the b*stards that did it in the first place. Moreso, because you know better -- they may just be standard corporate sociopaths, unable to act in any way that benefits others.

Apple is doing this on purpose, trying to break the standard using the weight of their money and influence so that they have control. If everyone does it their way, to get access to the iPad, they are in charge -- in fact, if not in theory. At the same time, they're trying to convince people that they're cooperating with everyone by claiming that they use the independent ePub standard.

The parallel to Microsoft, Internet Explorer and the browser wars of the 90's couldn't be clearer.

Don't cooperate; complain. Make their attempts difficult. Break their attempts at control -- find workarounds, or make difficulties for them.

[Hitch]

Geeeeze, Cap, old boy....feeling a bit frisky on this particular topic, are we? ;-)

Hitch

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Geeeeze, Cap, old boy....feeling a bit frisky on this particular topic, are we? ;-)

Hitch

I am with Cap on this one.
900 lb Gorilla's saying "We don't honor no stinki'n standards that aren't ours", is part of the Mess we have.

I am not talking about "Super-sets" of a Standard (although that can cause Big problems), but Failure to meet the Minimums. and still say: "We do ePub"

Originally Posted by capidamonte

Apple is doing this on purpose, trying to break the standard using the weight of their money and influence so that they have control.

You were at the board meeting where we discussed future Apple world domination too?

I especially liked Jim's rousing speech and the way it ended, "so you see, the key to our success is to control epub as a format. Soon the masses will flock to iBooks and we shall enslave them all! We shall leverage epub as a format and will use it to usurp the Open Source pretenders!"

I think Benny's comments about the omission of the "itunesmetadata.plist" from the manifest in the OPF being just an error on his team's part was an attempt sow discord and undermine Jim's most excellent plans.

Mwaah-ha-ha! epub domination shall be ours! Chortle-chortle-chortle!

[capidamonte]

Oh, you're so funny!

Do you write that Ziggy comic? Or maybe you write for Dennis Miller?

How did you know, I mean know, deep down in your mini-soul, that I was just a deluded, drugged-out hippy that doesn't understand that in the REAL WORLD, capitalism and the iron-jawed heroes of Corporate Murica sometimes have to destroy something in order to save it? That when they rebuild it in their image, it's always better, and available for $9.99! (While supplies last.)

I always feel better after a big, strong, manly, virile, studly tough-guy like yourself steps into a serious discussion about important things with a content-free, pseudo-funny mockery of any concern that isn't about profit. I tend to forget that there are no other valid values, and when I go off like that, it's nice that someone with really good hair and a nice suit (like yourself) steps in and puts me back in my proper place.

Now that I know that all the things I experience and see in the world are irrelevant or subordinate to the well-being of giant, sociopathic, immortal organizations, I feel better. Whew! I was worrying that the values we uphold might be mistaken -- now I realize that it's just MY values that don't matter -- that once everything is reduced to profit-and-loss, I can breathe free.

At least until they figure out how to meter my oxygen intake.

[charleski]

I'd be slightly more sympathetic towards Apple's callous disregard of the standard if iBooks wasn't such a stinking pile of poorly-documented toxic waste.

Breaking the standard because you want to offer a raft of new capabilities is one thing, but Apple broke it simply because they couldn't care less - it would have been trivial to insert any new iTunes-specific metadata into the opf.

I apologise to the moderator(s) for wasting space. I was going to reply to capidamonte's post publicly but decided against that. He/she's additional private message was even more scornful than the post here; so, a private message seemed the most expeditious method.

Enough of the sideshow let's get one with the main attraction.

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by capidamonte

The parallel to Microsoft, Internet Explorer and the browser wars of the 90's couldn't be clearer.

As a lover of irony, I sometimes like to go over to YouTube and replay the famous "1984" Apple Superbowl commercial. In the 2+ decades since that ad, Apple has adopted the very philosophy they criticized. Guess it all depends on who's in the driver's seat. Or thinks they are.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by charleski

I'd be slightly more sympathetic towards Apple's callous disregard of the standard if iBooks wasn't such a stinking pile of poorly-documented toxic waste.

Breaking the standard because you want to offer a raft of new capabilities is one thing, but Apple broke it simply because they couldn't care less - it would have been trivial to insert any new iTunes-specific metadata into the opf.

Hey, Charleski:

I agree with you, absolutely. First we get this gigantic heaping pile of Apple Developer's Guide, replete with the dire "thine epubs shall pass EpubCheck" language, etc....and then the moment a "big 5" publisher wants to put video in its book, ka-blammo! Enter HTML5, which has bupkus to do with Epubcheck, and suddenly no one at Apple even remembers that passing Epubcheck was ever a requirement.

And the thing with the iTunes-specific metadata/files into the epub once you've loaded it onto the iBook for testing is a royal PITA. They simply go out of the way to make book developers' lives a misery. I've got a children's book epub we've been working on for WEEKS...looks smokin' in every epub reader there is...except iBooks, which for some reason, just trashes it. Not to mention the endless problems (with books with images) of the fact that the re-orientation from portrait to LS causes changes to image sizes and other css elements which screw up the page, until the iPad "settles down," but that's bloody hard to explain to clients, lemme tell ya.

Hitch