Quote:
Originally Posted by ukkoss_project
However, “more than one way to complete tasks”, “cross-platform”, “integration with wide variety of technologies”, “extensibility” and “documentation” aren’t characteristics that would make calibre different from any other software in terms of usability / how “pleasant” the program is to use overall.
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Cross platform really does make calibre different than other software. That's not to say other software doesn't have to worry about this because there are plenty of cross platform applications out there.
Part of usability is expectation. OS X applications (for example) are expected to act and behave in a certain way. Windows applications are again expected to act and behave in a certain way. These behaviors are not the same.
Saying X, Y, Z is more usable may be true for a Windows user due to their expectations but it can potentially be completely backwards to what an OS X user expects. This needs to be balanced. What ends up happing is a compromise that works and is usable but doesn't make users of either platform happy.
This is a very common usability issue that comes up time and time again. This in particular is one reason why many people are cautious with your proposal. I'm not saying that it's not welcome but there are many threads here which basically go like this:
- new_user: Hi! I have some ideas on how calibre could be more usable.
- community: Great! We'd love to hear them.
- new_user: Change everything and make it work like other OS X apps.
- ....or.....
- new_user: Change everything and make it work like other Windows apps.
- ....or.....
- new_user: Change everything to make it work like this other application.
- community: That can't or won't be done for multiple reasons explained below. These also have little to do with usability but with your expication on how an application should function on your preferred platform.
- new_user: GO F**K yourselves for not doing what I say you should do because calibre is S**T if you don't and this is the only way to make people want to use this piece of garbage.
Discussion about specific identifiable issues and concrete solutions to these problems is welcome. But again take into account that while something may appear usable on OS X it may not be usable to a Windows user due to expectations. Saying, "change calibre to work how I think it should work because I say so", isn't welcome.