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Don Edwards - Calibre has to store the format files somewhere, given it integrates with external devices like ereaders and tablets the file system is the obvious (only) choice, rather than blobs in a database.
Calibre could use guids to name folders rather than author names and titles, or it could put everything into one folder using a common guid for each file for the same book.
But if it did, then when the book owner wanted to stop using calibre, the book owner would be left with the daunting task of making sense of a set of folders and files with guid names.
Would you rather be left with a bunch of folders that have names that are meaningful (even if stripped of diacritics and sometimes truncated) such as
Code:
MyLibrary\Daniel Defoe\Robinson Crusoe (86)\Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe.epub
or something like
Code:
abd51a3b-b980-4c04-9680-dac5162026f7\6d592674-b5cd-43bb-9390-8a00c9b808b4\34e13190-0994-4445-abc8-9b37d840e37d.epub
Not being a B&N customer I wont address the specific issues relating to it.
BR