An assortment of thoughts, including my opinion (marked as
) and some taking the other side of the arguement (marked as
) for the sake of discussing things. I have deleted fairly substantial sections of the quoted material to keep the post size down (hah!). Hopefully, in the process, I am not taking the meaning out of context.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stisev
I've been lurking for a long, long time ... I just downloaded the latest [stable 0.5*] release
|
A "long time" on the Net is subjective. Assuming the OP has read the Calibre section of the Forums for a month, they have some idea how the program works. It doesn't make the OP an advanced user, but it does make them more knowledgeable than John Q. Public who installed the software without reading anything.
Having said that, all users should ask for help when an issue arises that they do not understand. The same is true for a desired feature. It might already be included but implemented in a less obvious manner than expected. Keep in mind that calibre is cross-platform compatible software.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stisev
Calibre decided to rearrange ALL of the folders ... which annoyed me ... creating duplicate entries ... absolutely horrid directory structure ... Name of book/Author/-file.zip-
|
This
is a new user mistake. One that affects almost all new users - including myself. Luckily I only imported a single book. I did not realize calibre was going to copy my ebooks. I thought I needed to point to the location of my existing ebook library.
But this situation happens too often. Implying that this point needs to be addressed more clearly in some manner within the software. Not the documentation. No one reads that until
after you've played with things for a bit. (Go on, try and tell me you don't install, play around and then read!
) Perhaps a dialog needs to be added or, during the initial setup, something about this could be more clearly stated.
The horrible directory structure is totally correct. Not in the sense that it doesn't work; nor that some kind of standardized structure
has to be used. These points I understand and accept.
However, when was the last time that you looked for a book in a (real) Library or Bookstore and found anything listed under the author's first name? Most of us try to remember an author's surname so we can find their work. So calibre's usage is counter-intuitive. However it is exactly the same arrangement used by most media players - despite the music industry grouping by genre and then surname. Ultimately the issue here is one of familiarity vs computer processing limitations.
The
title - author naming pattern mentioned is, I believe, a simple error. I think the OP meant
author - title. Still, originally I hated the author/title/filename.format arrangement. Then I noticed how often other users had to convert ebook formats. This made me realize the necessity of this type of structure. If a user only has a single ebook format the need for this structure is not obvious and therefore a limitation, not a feature.
Another issue is that for most computer "power users" (used here as: individuals without formal or practical education / experience to make them true programmers / techs) knowing, using and getting around an operating system is standard. You have to learn to surpass the OS' limitations when it doesn't do what you want. Power users new to calibre cannot understand and abide by the file structure required because they've already spent considerable time creating an alternate structure.
While computers can make almost anything
possible, it is not always
feasible to do something in a specific manner.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gwynevans
... treat Calibre's library as a 'black box' & don't go in there ... you can always import, edit, save to disk then delete calibre's copy.
|
Agreed. Of course, this aspect is not something that most people consider. Usually you keep a single copy of any file on your computer, not two. So users consider the extra copy a waste of hard drive space. Considering how many people have under-powered systems, this is an understandable conclusion for them to make.
Deleting the books from calibre's library is counter-intuitive. Generally if you delete something from a database, or a hard drive, it ceases to exist or to
have existed. At least as far as the database is concerned. So the fact that this works in Calibre is not obvious. Again, this might need to be addressed in the software (although I admit I'm unsure how this one could be done well).
Quote:
Originally Posted by kovidgoyal
And I defy anyone to give me a single use case where having calibre support their pet folder structure is better.
|
Ok, you're a computer PhD and I'm not. So I probably don't understand exactly what you mean by "use case" per industry standard definition. But...
I cannot attest to "better". However I can and will say that it is "easier for the user" to have calibre support the file structure that the user has already created. No one enjoys doing work twice - particularly tedious work that requires lots of manual effort. Having gone through the hassle of setting up a file structure, naming all the files accordingly, etc it is highly annoying to have a piece of software come along and change it all willy-nilly. Now, I know it's not willy-nilly, but as the user was not expecting this, their perception is less than favorable.
Now, having copied the files willy-nilly to another structure, and totally ignored all of the hard work the user has already put into the project, they have to start all over by re-entering metadata. Some of which was in the filenames. Yes, calibre can import some of this info directly. But most new users find this out after importing their books. This is why I opened a feature request ticket for saving re-usable import
regex formulas. While this doesn't address things perfectly, it does ameliorate things a bit. (BTW, new user Atley just created a topic about this very same issue in the forums in the last couple days.)
Alright, I'm going to leave the soapbox now. If your eyes have not glazed over by now, your fingers must be worn down to nubs scrolling down so much!