Quote:
Originally Posted by theonna
For file manager it is not a limitation. The only reason that someone might need a book in more than one collection is that collections are flat. If you have hierarchical structure, you do not need to have same book in many collections, because it would already be filed under genre, author and series. So this is a limitation of a flat shelving system and it gets transferred to a collection system derived from folder structure.
Generally you'd specify a directory from which you'd like to build shelves, and it builds them from all books from that directory and all subfolders.
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No, it's not as easy as you think, and I can prove it with just a few real life examples:
- "Good Omens" written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman,genre Humor Fantasy.
In a folder based structure Where do you put it? under Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman, or both making a duplicate of the file? or do you create a "Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman" folder just for one book?
Same problem with genre, you need to chose between Fantasy and Humor, or duplicate the book.
- Michael Moorcock books, he wrote fantasy books, science fiction books and literary fiction.
In a folder structure like:
Genre
Author
Series
you need to break Moorcock's biography under tree different genres, and there is no way to have a complete view of all his books.
Otherwise if you make a folder structure like:
Author
Genre
Series
You need to create a fantasy folder (and a science fiction one) under each Author, loosing the ability to have a total view of all fantasy books in your library.
- WildCard Series written by George R. R. Martin, R. Zelazny and many others, each book a different writer.
I cannot imagine a folder based way to take the entire series of books together.
A tag based shelf system, is much more flexible to me.