Quote:
Originally Posted by hsawires
the question that I dont get a logical answer on it, .. if calibre is able to store the files and folders with their real names, with the same exact metadata, when you export using save to disk, why it is so hard to do the same in its library folders?
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Probably the only person who can give you a definitive answer is Kovid Goyal
(see post # 32). I have no doubt that he would have given considerable thought to the decision to transliterate RTL Author Names and Book Titles into LTR English when creating the library folder and file names. Kovid is not someone who takes the easy way out.
My only thought is that some third party applications may not be able to handle RTL folder and file names - you'd know about that, better than me. When a book is saved to disk then Calibre loses sight of it - hence, from Kovid's perspective, its 'safe' to use the RTL character set.
I have another reason why I couldn't abide incomprehensible folder and file names - I use Windows Search and Recoll on my Calibre Library folders.
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So what would I do?
Firstly I should say that my main use of Calibre is as a 'reference' library in which I keep 'documents' such as government reports, consultancy and academic papers, journal articles, so its from that context I make the following suggestion.
I would explore the use of Calibre as a conversion and metadata reference (cataloguing) tool. I would keep the 'permanent' format files in a parallel folder hierarchy - ie one based on Author Names and Titles using RTL Arabic. This folder hierarchy ('content library') would be 'maintained' via Calibres Save to Disk feature. So books would be imported into Calibre for the purpose of 'deduping', getting the author and title properties consistent, extracting covers, updating metadata and conversion. I would then export them to the 'content library'
So how would I get from an item in the Calibre book list to the book format files. I would insert links into a custom comments column to the equivalent 'content library' folder, and maybe the format files too. The custom column and its links would be show in Book Details and the links to the content folder and format files could be clicked on to open them. Once I'd done that I would remove the format files from the Calibre library.
What would I lose. Firstly tight integration with devices, but that wouldn't bother me personally as I don't use it. Calibre would not know in what formats I had the books, but if that was really important I could record it manually in a suitable custom column. I'd lose the convenience of pressing 'v' to read a book, 'o' to open the content folder, I use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible, so for me these losses would be annoying.
I'm sure there are other things that I would lose but they may also be irrelevant to me. That's why I said I would
explore the idea.
I'd have to be aware of the consequences of changing Author names and Book titles - especially Author names, but its not something I would anticipate doing carte blanche once I had exported the book.
I would maintain backups of the Calibre Library folders and the content folders via the same process - for me that would happen anyway, I use the same software and process to backup all my data.
I think I am right in saying that Arab writers often use pseudonyms (kunya names ?), is this an issue for you and are there any conventions on how to 'handle' them - i.e. what do Arabic libraries do?
BR