calibre: most desired feature, pony up for Kovid - Page 2

The Old Man · 06-04-2008, 09:38 AM

Reading this thread I realize that there is not much - there are not many things - that I would want calibre to do that it is already not doing well. Thank you Kovid!

In fact, will calibre continue to grow until it does so much that it loses the functionality that it now has? I hope not.

Oh yes, one little item that I would like to see. When you Save to Disk I would like to see calibre open the menu dialog to the same place (folder) that you saved to previously.

HarryT · 06-04-2008, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

But there are only two DRM providers for Mobi. Remember last year's August?

Three, if you include Amazon's (private) Kindle DRM server, but yes, I know. Still, all those stores would presumably need to install new software. It's not a trivial task. And what about all the older devices which have versions of the Mobi reader available? I doubt anyone' going to write "Digital Editions" eBook views for o/s's like old versions of PalmOS or Windows CE. Mobi's not going anywhere in a hurry!

Xenophon · 06-04-2008, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by serpentium

Hi,
im a happy user of calibre: really great product!
Only worried about my growing library (>2000 ebooks) and so calibre on mac os x going slow when i ask something on the library (sorting or filtering or renaming). Could be a useful feature having more than one library (maybe selecting name and destination)?
Otherwise i will continue to swap file for library in order to make some quick conversion, when i dont want to wait minutes to calibre to open the big library.

Kovid has a Mac for development (courtesy of one of our MobileReaders). Perhaps you could burn a CD (or DVD) of your library and paper-mail it to him. Armed with that and with a detailed description of your performance issues, he'd probably be able to tune things up for you.

Note that Kovid's Mac is old and slow (partly because the donor was willing to give it up, and partly to encourage development choices that run well on old slow machines like what most of us have

)

With only about 700 books in my library, calibre runs nice and quickly once it's opened. It's pretty slow to start up, though.

Xenophon

JeffElkins · 06-04-2008, 11:27 AM

I'll add my vote for a convert to MOBI option. Inferior or not, it's not going away. However, were it a choice between that and epub, I vote for epub.

wallcraft · 06-04-2008, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I also like the idea, originally discussed on teleread, for an epub2web converter, where "web" is the (exploded) epub plus additional html files to allow the ebook to be read by a standard web browser.

Now teleread is back up, see the discussion in The challenges of building on ePub. The argument for epub2web is that there are so few epub viewer applications, and unmodified web browsers should make very capable epub viewers providing you don't care about pages. The trick would be to get a good set of HTML wrappers for the epub files, since these will control the reading experience (TOC, goto next/last chapter, etcetera). Baen's on-line version is one example of how this might look, for example see the Read Online link for Ring of Fire.

=X= · 06-04-2008, 12:39 PM

I'm real happy with the tool and can only think of one feature I would like to see.
And LRF2LRFconverter.

Most LRF I have came across have the fonts too large and the borders too thick. (except for the SONY Store LRX) I find it kind of ironic that I have to choose Mobi/ePub/LIT over LRF so that I may get the format I like. I've trolled some of the other threads and know I'm not alone here

=X=

kovidgoyal · 06-04-2008, 01:22 PM

@HarryT: I agree that MOBI as a platform for delivering content isn't going away anytime soon, but that's not the point. calibre already converts *from* MOBI, just not *to* MOBI. My point is that in the very near future most devices that read MOBI will also read epub, which means that converting to MOBI will be pointless, since you'd get a nicer ebook converting to EPUB.

@wallcraft: You could always vote for me to write an epub viewer

Certainly creating a HTML wrapper around an exploded epub should be easy.

Peto · 06-04-2008, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by =X=

I'm real happy with the tool and can only think of one feature I would like to see.
And LRF2LRFconverter. =X=

Yep. That is one feature I miss...

kovidgoyal · 06-04-2008, 01:42 PM

Since mobipocket is about to release a version of mobigen for linux, writing html2mobi should become pretty easy as well.

HarryT · 06-05-2008, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

My point is that in the very near future most devices that read MOBI will also read epub,

I'm not so sure that you're right about that, but let's wait and see. Time will tell.

curtw · 06-05-2008, 01:57 PM

Well, I've already ponied up (I sent cash directly to Kovid's snail mailbox, rather than giving eBay a cut), but I would happily pay more for one thing that is near and dear to this Mac-user's heart: Drag-and-drop support. Not just for adding books to the Library, but also for adding artwork to a book.

kovidgoyal · 06-05-2008, 03:00 PM

You can already drag and drop cover images to onto the cover display in the edit metadata dialog

curtw · 06-06-2008, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can already drag and drop cover images to onto the cover display in the edit metadata dialog

Aha. I guess I should have been a little more specific. There's a little bug (in the Mac version, at least) with regard to adding artwork. the metadata window expands to accommodate the size of the image without taking into account the size of the display. If the image is too big, the control buttons and "resize corner" vanish off the bottom of the screen and can't be retrieved. The only way out is to hit the ESC key or the close button. My suggestion would be to only expand the window down to the top of the Dock (or the bottom of the screen if the dock is hidden) and add a scrollbar, OR to dynamically resize the "displayed" image to avoid enlarging the window too far.

(I should also note that I'm still using one of the last versions of libprs500. If this has already been fixed in calibre, I apologize).

JeffElkins · 06-06-2008, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curtw

Aha. I guess I should have been a little more specific. There's a little bug (in the Mac version, at least) with regard to adding artwork. the metadata window expands to accommodate the size of the image without taking into account the size of the display. If the image is too big, the control buttons and "resize corner" vanish off the bottom of the screen and can't be retrieved. The only way out is to hit the ESC key or the close button. My suggestion would be to only expand the window down to the top of the Dock (or the bottom of the screen if the dock is hidden) and add a scrollbar, OR to dynamically resize the "displayed" image to avoid enlarging the window too far.

(I should also note that I'm still using one of the last versions of libprs500. If this has already been fixed in calibre, I apologize).

I see this resize issue with the Linux version.

kovidgoyal · 06-06-2008, 01:01 PM

the windows resizing issue will be fixed in the next release.

06-04-2008, 12:39 PM	#21
=X= Wizard Posts: 3,662 Karma: 12205306 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Galaxy S, Nook w/CM7	LRF2LRF I'm real happy with the tool and can only think of one feature I would like to see. And LRF2LRFconverter. Most LRF I have came across have the fonts too large and the borders too thick. (except for the SONY Store LRX) I find it kind of ironic that I have to choose Mobi/ePub/LIT over LRF so that I may get the format I like. I've trolled some of the other threads and know I'm not alone here =X=

06-05-2008, 01:57 PM	#26
curtw Outside of a dog Posts: 512 Karma: 1210400 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston, TX Device: iPod Touch, Kindle 3, Pandigital Novel Personal, Literati, Nexus 7	Well, I've already ponied up (I sent cash directly to Kovid's snail mailbox, rather than giving eBay a cut), but I would happily pay more for one thing that is near and dear to this Mac-user's heart: Drag-and-drop support. Not just for adding books to the Library, but also for adding artwork to a book. __________________ Now reading: {e} The Bandit of Hell's Bend, by Edgar Rice Burroughs {p} The Bedtrick, by Wendy Doniger

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06-04-2008, 09:38 AM	#16
The Old Man Addict Posts: 336 Karma: 3329 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: New Hampshire Device: iPad, Kindle DXG, PRS T1	Reading this thread I realize that there is not much - there are not many things - that I would want calibre to do that it is already not doing well. Thank you Kovid! In fact, will calibre continue to grow until it does so much that it loses the functionality that it now has? I hope not. Oh yes, one little item that I would like to see. When you Save to Disk I would like to see calibre open the menu dialog to the same place (folder) that you saved to previously.

06-04-2008, 11:27 AM	#19
JeffElkins PRSCustomizer Posts: 773 Karma: 1416 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: PRS 505 Blue/iPod Touch/Epic 4G/Nook Classic	I'll add my vote for a convert to MOBI option. Inferior or not, it's not going away. However, were it a choice between that and epub, I vote for epub.

06-04-2008, 01:22 PM	#22
kovidgoyal Creator of calibre Posts: 22,516 Karma: 2944574 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	@HarryT: I agree that MOBI as a platform for delivering content isn't going away anytime soon, but that's not the point. calibre already converts from MOBI, just not to MOBI. My point is that in the very near future most devices that read MOBI will also read epub, which means that converting to MOBI will be pointless, since you'd get a nicer ebook converting to EPUB. @wallcraft: You could always vote for me to write an epub viewer Certainly creating a HTML wrapper around an exploded epub should be easy.

06-04-2008, 01:42 PM	#24
kovidgoyal Creator of calibre Posts: 22,516 Karma: 2944574 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Since mobipocket is about to release a version of mobigen for linux, writing html2mobi should become pretty easy as well.

06-05-2008, 03:00 PM	#27
kovidgoyal Creator of calibre Posts: 22,516 Karma: 2944574 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You can already drag and drop cover images to onto the cover display in the edit metadata dialog

06-06-2008, 01:01 PM	#30
kovidgoyal Creator of calibre Posts: 22,516 Karma: 2944574 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	the windows resizing issue will be fixed in the next release.


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