Why is Calibre 223 MB!?

[bsabiston]

Calibre is a freaking huge application, and yet it doesn't really have much content inside it, does it? What in the world makes it such a huge application?

Just wondering
Bob

[theducks]

Originally Posted by bsabiston

Calibre is a freaking huge application, and yet it doesn't really have much content inside it, does it? What in the world makes it such a huge application?

Just wondering
Bob

Because you went to a Malware site to get your download?
8.47 MSI is 45.8 MB

[frostschutz]

The windows version probably brings its own copy of Python plus tons of third party libraries

The linux tar.xz is 24M, and 147M uncompressed.

The translations alone are 57M, they look like this:

#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/bambook/driver.py:352
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/bambook/driver.py:354
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/hanvon/driver.py:115
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/hanvon/driver.py:126
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/kobo/driver.py:426
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/kobo/driver.py:458
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py:335
#: /home/kovid/work/calibre/src/calibre/devices/usbms/driver.py:356
msgid "Removing books from device..."
msgstr "Bücher vom Gerät entfernen ..."

So tons of comments for every little string times 70+ languages = huge.

[theducks]

Oh! Uncompressed.
That, with lots of alternate Locale's supported. (Interestingly is that Windows version is 126M uncompressed)

Gone are the days when you only got a program in a single language (or in many cases, a single OS)

It is a good thing that Hard drives are US$100 a Tera Byte.
A week without Starbucks and I can afford another drive.

[kovidgoyal]

The translations do not look like that. Binary calibre releases contain compiled translations in .mo format. And those in turn are stored in a zip file resources/localization/locales.zip which is 6.2 MB. The size of a calibre install comes from one thing and one thing alone, the need to bundle all dependencies, since calibre uses cross platform libraries not available on the OS. Actual calibre code and resources (icons/fonts/translations/etc) total about 60MB on disk after installation.

I especially liked the OP's claim that "calibre does so little".

[Jazzy_Jeffaz]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The translations do not look like that. Binary calibre releases contain compiled translations in .mo format. And those in turn are stored in a zip file resources/localization/locales.zip which is 6.2 MB. The size of a calibre install comes from one thing and one thing alone, the need to bundle all dependencies, since calibre uses cross platform libraries not available on the OS. Actual calibre code and resources (icons/fonts/translations/etc) total about 60MB on disk after installation.

I especially liked the OP's claim that "calibre does so little".

I agree. There are so many great features to your software. I thank you for all the time and effort you put into it.

[bsabiston]

Uh, I didn't say "calibre does so little.". See, look, it's right up there a few inches. I was just asking why it was so large. I am using the Mac version. I don't mean to denigrate the program, just wondering what all is in there that takes 223 freaking MB.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by bsabiston

Uh, I didn't say "calibre does so little.". See, look, it's right up there a few inches. I was just asking why it was so large. I am using the Mac version. I don't mean to denigrate the program, just wondering what all is in there that takes 223 freaking MB.

Well, you did say "it doesn't really have much content".

About half is support frameworks - Python and QT mainly. Another third are python resources - python library and Python/QT interface.

No attempt is made to strip these frameworks and libraries down to just the parts that are used in calibre. Nor should there be such an attempt.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

No attempt is made to strip these frameworks and libraries down to just the parts that are used in calibre. Nor should there be such an attempt.

Actually calibre includes only those parts of Qt (and PyQt) that it uses. For example the SQL drivers are left out (calibre uses python's sql support). calibre uses almost all of the python stdlib and several other python packages, but even there docs/tests etc are stripepd out and the only the least space intensive form of the python files (compiled to optimized bytecode) are included in the binary releases.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Actually calibre includes only those parts of Qt (and PyQt) that it uses. For example the SQL drivers are left out (calibre uses python's sql support). calibre uses almost all of the python stdlib and several other python packages, but even there docs/tests etc are stripepd out and the only the least space intensive form of the python files (compiled to optimized bytecode) are included in the binary releases.

Whoops! Thanks for the correction.

[mrmikel]

Calibre's use of python is what makes it extendable and maintainable, something that the Sigil maintainer does not have the advantage of. Upgrades and updates are much harder for him and his crew.

[Sydney's Mom]

It could be 5G, I would download it without delay. It is worth it. Just to be able to email books to my kindle. And find that book I downloaded 2 years ago, set in Australia.

[bsabiston]

"Well, you did say "it doesn't really have much content".

I just meant that to my knowledge it didn't store the content, as in BOOKS, in the application.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by bsabiston

"Well, you did say "it doesn't really have much content".

I just meant that to my knowledge it didn't store the content, as in BOOKS, in the application.

Ah - well, no. That would be a very bad idea indeed.