[gplauche]

Thanks for replying to yet another folder structure thread.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

1) Save to disk lets you do this as easily as copying a folder

I haven't tried it yet, admittedly. It lets you save multiple books/files at once?

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

2) The reason for the folder structure is not to support tagging/search/sort. It is for the following two reasons:

a) calibre supports multiple copies of the same logical book in different formats. That means each logical book needs its own folder.

I realize this.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

b) Robustness.

- 1) In my experience when programs allow you to store files in arbitrary locations, those locations inevitably change over time and the links between the database and the locations change. I'm not saying you, personally will do this, I'm saying for a program with as large a user base as calibre, a significant fraction of calibre's users will, and this will create a support nightmare for me.

I'm not a programmer, so maybe that's why I'm not seeing why it would be a problem if Calibre was able to watch and manage/organize multiple folders while keeping its author/title/logicalbook subfolder structure within these.(especially in Linux).

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

- 2) Putting files into folders is a way of storing metadata using a filesystem. This is less than optimal for various reasons I have detailed elsewhere and I want to discourage the practice.

I'm not arguing with this. I can see how tag, search, and sort is generally superior/optimal for finding the ebook you're looking for.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

- 3) By having the cataloguing program manage the folder structure, your folders will always match the updated metadata for the books, making it easy to browse the folder structure.

This I don't agree with. It can be much harder to search for something in a folder in which all the files are organized by author then title. Having your files organized in folders by categories and subcategories like fiction or nonfiction, academic disciplines, fiction genre, etc., can things down considerably and make searching through author names much quicker. But this is not a major issue. One of the main reasons I want to use Calibre is its tag, search and sort features. This is generally superior to searching through folders.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The disadvantages are:

2) Interoperability with other programs. You really shouldn't be using two catalog programs to manage the same set of books. And calibre comes with a comprehensive set of command line tools to allows users to use just the conversion/news download features if they want to stick with their existing catalog scheme.

In my opinion, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

I don't consider maintaining duplicate files in separate file structures to be optimal. If nothing else, it wastes storage space. Both Calibre and Mendeley perform some very useful functions that the other does not. I need them both. Mendeley does not handle sending files to external devices like e-readers and smartphones at all. It doesn't do format conversion. Calibre isn't a dedicated research, bibliography, and citation tool with syncing to an online library/database and social networking. That's fine. But I don't see why two or more catalog programs can't manage the same set of files so long as they play nice with each other's file structure and can watch/manage/organize multiple folders.

Ultimately your opinion is the one that counts here, of course. All I can do is try to persuade you. If I haven't persuaded you with this message, I'm probably not going to. Thanks again. Calibre is great at what it does.