Quote:
Originally Posted by gwk
But it seems to me that adding a replace (and possible also a regexp replace) for the title to the bulk-edit dialog box would make calibre far more powerful. Not sure how difficult this would be.
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From a development standpoint, it wouldn't be hard to provide a facility that permits regexp matching and replacement for an arbitrary field. Use the (python) force, Luke! Python already has a facility for regexp search and replace, and all we would need to do is give a user a way to enter the strings. All you would need to do is understand python backreference syntax and semantics, and voila! you have it.
The problem is not really the development time. It is, instead, how difficult the general case is, coupled with the inevitable need for support that such a feature would raise. Perhaps we can hire help desk people with the money we make from license fees. Oh....
Three examples:
1) The vast majority of calibre users have no clue what regular expressions are, much less what backreferences are. Where will the documentation and tutorials come from? What about support? Examples?
2) People would scream for an 'undo bulk edit' function, because the regexp turned all their fields into happy faces.
2) This feature is by necessity a 'power user' feature, but that (rightly) won't stop people from asking for help in solving a particular problem. Those explanation cycles must come from somewhere.
Making something 'easy to use' and 'intuitive' is extremely hard and time consuming. Choices need to be made between doing nothing, doing something that can be done in the time available, or doing it right. My opinion: the more calibre grows in popularity, the more we must choose to do nothing, because the middle path leads to perdition.
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