Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweetpea
Nothing to do with that. Just because I don't have room to spare I am against improvements? Just because i happen to like a folder-like structure I'm backwards?
I'd love for an application that, like Calibre, reads the meta tags, but has a folder-like structure (maybe next to the collection-like structure that is now in Calibre), and that allows me to enter books without copying them to its own location. I know you can add empty books, but I'd have to enter all meta data myself then. For paper books, I wouldn't mind, but Calibre does have the meta data reading.
|
In a word, yes. To expand on that, backwards is not all that accurate. Luddism is a resistance to new technology. Backwardism would suggest, for example, you would prefer having scrolls over the books you now use.
It's a rare person who isn't a Luddite of sorts. I have a cell phone but it doesn't even have a camera. It's a phone; I use it to make phone calls in energencies when a landline is not available. Otherwise, it stays turned off. That alone makes me a Luddite. I won't bore you with the list of other new technology I've not embraced.
When I made the comment about Luddism, I was responding to Hired Goons comment about preferring an older, less efficient technology, specifically folder/filename tree organization, then saying that because the subject keeps coming up there must be something to it. "It" is Luddism.
Comparing folder/filename tree organization to metadata (tag) organization is like comparing letters to email. Letters are slow and require the payment of postage, the materials they are written on and with, and the containers they are sent in (aka envelopes). Emails are much faster, require no postage, and may be less stressful to the environment (no trees have to die to create and send an email). The reason many people still prefer letters over email is the technology to send and read them is not available to them, they do not understand the technology required, or they do not want to embrace the technology required. The latter may be due to the fear of learning new technology, an inability to understand the new technology, or the comfort of having something that, to them is more tangible than the new technology. In otherwords, they prefer to have something they can hold in their hot, little hands to read, then bundle up and wrap with a ribbon to save. It's no different than people resisting e-books because they prefer the feel of a book, the smell of a book, and/or the more tangible presence (and/or appearance; bragging rights means a lot to many people) of books on a bookshelf over more efficient storage on a HDD or SDD.
The same is true of file organization. The vast majority of us cut our eyeteeth on the traditional folder/filename tree system of organizing our files. It is easy for us to use because we are used to it and we see it at a glance. It is highly inefficient because it is pretty much one dimensional. Books can be classified in numerous ways. A single book may be classed as multiple genres, by author, by series, by sub-series, by series or sub-series number, by subject matter, by period, by the characters, by location of the story, by ISBN, etc. To be able to search a book by any of those criteria would require impossibly long filenames to include all the metadata. To organise them by all of those criteria would require filing multiple copies in multiple folders and subfolders of various branches of the tree. A way to cut down on the number of copies of files would be to use shortcuts to files but creating and maintaining them would be a royal pain.
Calibre does away with the need to have impossibly long filenames, creating, maintaining, and navigating complex trees, and the need for creating shortcuts or multiple copies of a book, the same way many photo album programs have been using similar systems for years. Once one becomes familiar with it, searches are simpler and improved. I'm looking forward to an OS that will eliminate the folder/filename tree system of file organization and replace it with a tag organization system like calibre's. I have many documents in my computer that I have many duplicate copies of because they can be filed under more than one category. The tech help documents I have I plan on moving someday (when I have time) into a separate library in calibre so I can get rid of the duplicates. I haven't adopted a photo album program that uses a tag filing system like calibre's yet, also due to a lack of time. Both are on my to-do list. I'm using calibre now because I'm in the process of converting my p-books to e-books (of sorts), and I have to file the new e-books only once. Same for the e-books I've downloaded.
As far as having room for only one set of books in your computer goes, if you are running that close to filling your computer, you need to upgrade to a larger hard drive or invest in an external hard drive to store the original files on. File storage per GB is cheap nowadays.