Stanza iPhone has issue with "<I" in text?

Mon, 01/12/2009 - 14:12 — fordan

I think there's an issue in the way that the Stanza iPhone app handles text with less-than and greater-than characters in it, at least if they look like HTML tags. I'm trying to convert "More Than Honor" by David Weber (http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/09-AtAllCostsCD/AtAllCostsCD/More%20T... for the book in various formats) into an ebook readable by Stanza. In the first story (just after part IV), there's this text:

<I believe that you believe the two-leg had some way of knowing you were there,> Short Tail had told him judiciously, his mind voice grave, <yet I fail to see how it could have. You saw none of the strange lights or tool things the two-legs have used to detect other scouts, after all.>

None of the text in the <> appears on the iPhone app, and from that point on, the text is in italics, probably due to the app treating the <I as a HTML tag. It does display correctly in Mac desktop app. It does this whether converted by Stanza for Mac or by Calibre. I tried converting the .lit version and the .prc version with the same outcome.

Mon, 01/19/2009 - 08:12 — jclarke (not verified)

Having same problem

I'm having the same problem with other books by the same author, as these seem to follow the same format for this text.

Mon, 01/12/2009 - 22:25 — fordan

When I unzip the epub

When I unzip the epub generated by calibre and look at the html file inside it, it's using the appropriate HTML for < >. Here's how that section appears:

<p><I believe that you believe the two-leg had some way of knowing you were there,> Short Tail had told him judiciously, his mind voice grave, <yet I fail to see how it could have. You saw none of the strange lights or tool things the two-leg s have used to detect other scouts, after all.>

Stanza for Mac looks like it's making an error in translating to epub with respect to the >, as here's how it translates the .lit file:

The < are being changed, the > are not. Does Stanza for Mac reconvert an epub file? I'm pretty sure I had it load the epub file from Stanza, and it exhibited the problem. I'll double check when I'm finished reading the book, as I don't want to lose my place. :D

Sat, 01/17/2009 - 17:01 — fordan

occurs with both stanza for Mac & calibre

Finished the ebook, and so was able to test. The issue with "<I" being interpreted incorrectly on the iPhone appears when I load the Stanza for Mac file which doesn't encode the > properly on it, as well as when I load the calibre generated epub book, which does handle < and > properly. Both were loaded via Stanza for Mac, but when I did a save as in Stanza for Mac after loading the calibre converted epub book, it had the > escaped properly, so I assume it's handing the version from calibre down to the iPhone with no changes, although I can't be certain.

So it looks to me like two bugs: One with Stanza for iPhone where it's interpreting even <I as an HTML tag even though it's properly encoded, and a bug with Stanza for Mac, in not properly converting > to > when encountered in the text.

Mon, 01/12/2009 - 22:37 — fordan

and as a quick followup, I'll

and as a quick followup, I'll point out that since both converters are properly escaping out the < symbol which would start a HTML tag, having the text disappear on the iPhone app and the rest of the file in italics suggests there's still an issue with the iPhone app improperly treating <i as <i and probably generically treating < any text > (or at least, < text >) as a HTML tag.

Open to other opinions, though.

Mon, 01/12/2009 - 16:48 — itimpi

Thge "<" character is mean to

Thge "<" character is mean to be escaped within the data - so it is probably a bug in the conversion code.

Has this been reported in the Calibre forum as well so it can be fixed for Calibre? It is more likely to get fixed rapidly within Calibre due to the much faster turn-around of new releases/bug fixes.