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toddos · 07-21-2010, 05:22 AM

Are you using the same Calibre that I am (note: I'm using it in Windows, but it's a cross-platform UI)? From your interface issues:

* Kovid has already said that icon resizing will be back in the next version. With the integration of the library bar with the toolbar, he didn't have time to get small/medium/large back in. This is how it goes with apps on such a quick release cycle. Surely in a week or two the fix will be in.
* The "flat" toolbar style has pretty much been the UI standard across Windows, Mac, and Linux since ... 1998? If you haven't figured out by now that "dropdown arrows by icons are always on the right" in the past 12 years, you've missed something. The buttons show their borders on hover.
* The del key deletes books for me
* The enter key doesn't do anything, but then I'm not really sure what it should do -- view or edit? For me, I'd prefer edit. Given that, using "E" or "V" for edit or view respectively seems like a valid compromise.
* Clicking the top book in cover flow opens it in the viewer for me.
* I don't know how I feel about chorded shortcuts vs. single-key shortcuts. If this were an editor like Word or emacs where you're inputting text but also need to have access to shortcuts, that makes sense. However Calibre's not, and single-key shortcuts work.

ebook handling:
* There is a way to edit/update books. Go into Edit and change the files attached (top-right of the metadata editor). No need to keep deleting the book. As for editing the book contents (not metadata) in Calibre, I don't think that's a good idea. Better to use apps that are designed for editing, like Sigil for epubs.
* The default behavior of a device should not be to automatically sync it. That's just evil. Maybe give an option if you want auto-sync, but it should never be the default. What do you do if your library is bigger than the capacity of the reader? Should you delete a book from Calibre that's been removed from the reader, or sync it back to the device because it's no longer there? How would you handle having different subsets of books on different devices? This is not iTunes or Zune where you're syncing with a single iPod or Zune. Calibre can handle multiple devices/targets (is iTunes sync a "device" that should autosync when you "Connect to iTunes"? What about "Connect to folder"?).

That's not to say all your ideas are bad. It sure would be nice to have the top-level context menu entries have a default if you click vs. hover to open the submenu, but I can understand that it might be a limitation with Qt and Python. Similarly with the worker thread size issue -- that might be at the mercy of Python's threading library rather than anything Kovid can do about it.

07-21-2010, 05:22 AM	#2
toddos Guru Posts: 695 Karma: 822675 Join Date: May 2010 Device: Kobo Aura, Nokia Lumia 920 (Freda)	Are you using the same Calibre that I am (note: I'm using it in Windows, but it's a cross-platform UI)? From your interface issues: * Kovid has already said that icon resizing will be back in the next version. With the integration of the library bar with the toolbar, he didn't have time to get small/medium/large back in. This is how it goes with apps on such a quick release cycle. Surely in a week or two the fix will be in. * The "flat" toolbar style has pretty much been the UI standard across Windows, Mac, and Linux since ... 1998? If you haven't figured out by now that "dropdown arrows by icons are always on the right" in the past 12 years, you've missed something. The buttons show their borders on hover. * The del key deletes books for me * The enter key doesn't do anything, but then I'm not really sure what it should do -- view or edit? For me, I'd prefer edit. Given that, using "E" or "V" for edit or view respectively seems like a valid compromise. * Clicking the top book in cover flow opens it in the viewer for me. * I don't know how I feel about chorded shortcuts vs. single-key shortcuts. If this were an editor like Word or emacs where you're inputting text but also need to have access to shortcuts, that makes sense. However Calibre's not, and single-key shortcuts work. ebook handling: * There is a way to edit/update books. Go into Edit and change the files attached (top-right of the metadata editor). No need to keep deleting the book. As for editing the book contents (not metadata) in Calibre, I don't think that's a good idea. Better to use apps that are designed for editing, like Sigil for epubs. * The default behavior of a device should not be to automatically sync it. That's just evil. Maybe give an option if you want auto-sync, but it should never be the default. What do you do if your library is bigger than the capacity of the reader? Should you delete a book from Calibre that's been removed from the reader, or sync it back to the device because it's no longer there? How would you handle having different subsets of books on different devices? This is not iTunes or Zune where you're syncing with a single iPod or Zune. Calibre can handle multiple devices/targets (is iTunes sync a "device" that should autosync when you "Connect to iTunes"? What about "Connect to folder"?). That's not to say all your ideas are bad. It sure would be nice to have the top-level context menu entries have a default if you click vs. hover to open the submenu, but I can understand that it might be a limitation with Qt and Python. Similarly with the worker thread size issue -- that might be at the mercy of Python's threading library rather than anything Kovid can do about it.