Quote:
Originally Posted by FlaSheridn
Ouch. I see why that makes sense from the developer’s point of view, but from the user’s perspective it’s a serious design mistake, since in the base case there aren’t a dozen formats. The user has only used one input format; the rest are an internal implementation detail. It’s also a user interface bug, since it ends up requiring different actions to achieve the same result a second time. Even if it’s not fixed, both behaviors need to be documented conspicuously.
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It's not a design mistake. I have a device that supports ePub and one that supports Mobipocket. For some books, both formats are available from the publisher, in which case I get both if I intend to read on both devices. In this case, for a conversion to a third format, both would be valid source formats. I also disagree that every format except for the originally imported one are "internal implementation details". Instead, they are what you could call instances or implementations of the same book, consolidated in the logical book unit. Depending on the users intentions, which Calibre, as I'm sure you'll agree, cannot know, different source formats may be appropriate for different tasks. Calibre gives the user the freedom to choose the format instead of imposing an arbitrary "master" format.
Apart from that, I'm sure you'll find the conversion process quite well documented in it's behaviours. It was the last time I looked.