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Philosopher · 02-15-2015, 09:05 PM

Ahh - thanks again (I am now understanding the issue a bit more as to why this is not as "simple" as I had assumed).

I will keep trying to think about work-arounds - but it appears I am at a dead end.

I do think it is important for the future development of Calibre to address this (but I see that perhaps this is so "deep" in the coding - it may be a "big task".)

I think in terms of developing the software - if the goal is to have it as "universally" accessible to the user (who I presume is primarily a mere reader (of books) and not a programmer) - this issue becomes of real importance.

I agree that the program should not LIMIT a unix-based user (and thus mac) from taking full advantage of the greater flexibility in naming that OS provides. I simply think that - in terms of useability outside of an expert community - that the DEFAULT saving and thus file naming practice should be the MOST UNIVERSAL (but alterable to the advanced user via preferences).

Thus I think it should ideally be designed such that any (default) file name should be IDENTICAL across platforms (and thus reduceable to that which is the most "limited" format). This way ANY user (of any degree of programming knowledge (including zero) on any platform could never encounter this problem (by default) and their libraries would be equally accessible no matter what plafform they are using. (A good scenario would be a Mac user who builds their library in that system - but then converts to a PC user. That user should NOT face the central issue I am addressing here (the default file saving and naming - is DIFFERENT by platform but most significantly - the windows user (I would assume the assumption being this being the majority users) is faced with the INCOMPATIBILITY issue (which does not occur in the other direction) - when the filename assigned in the unix system turns out to be too long for windows to "recognize" the file).

So my thinking is to seek to implement a standard whereby the assumptions can be:

1) A non-programming literate user (a simple "reader" of books);
2) A database created that (by default) can be read in ANY version of Calibre (Cross Platform) - and thus with the default set by the LEAST permissive file system - ie Windows.

It may be - however - that if this was not premised at the start of the project - at this point in time - to CHANGE this would be so GREAT a task that, at least for the moment, it is not something that would be viable or desirable to look into. Alternatively - if this is not as "deeply entrenched" - but could be subject to a more "simple" fix - I would highly recommend its being considered in a future update.

Thanks again for this discussion and your help.

02-15-2015, 09:05 PM	#11
Philosopher Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 12 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kindle	Ahh - thanks again (I am now understanding the issue a bit more as to why this is not as "simple" as I had assumed). I will keep trying to think about work-arounds - but it appears I am at a dead end. I do think it is important for the future development of Calibre to address this (but I see that perhaps this is so "deep" in the coding - it may be a "big task".) I think in terms of developing the software - if the goal is to have it as "universally" accessible to the user (who I presume is primarily a mere reader (of books) and not a programmer) - this issue becomes of real importance. I agree that the program should not LIMIT a unix-based user (and thus mac) from taking full advantage of the greater flexibility in naming that OS provides. I simply think that - in terms of useability outside of an expert community - that the DEFAULT saving and thus file naming practice should be the MOST UNIVERSAL (but alterable to the advanced user via preferences). Thus I think it should ideally be designed such that any (default) file name should be IDENTICAL across platforms (and thus reduceable to that which is the most "limited" format). This way ANY user (of any degree of programming knowledge (including zero) on any platform could never encounter this problem (by default) and their libraries would be equally accessible no matter what plafform they are using. (A good scenario would be a Mac user who builds their library in that system - but then converts to a PC user. That user should NOT face the central issue I am addressing here (the default file saving and naming - is DIFFERENT by platform but most significantly - the windows user (I would assume the assumption being this being the majority users) is faced with the INCOMPATIBILITY issue (which does not occur in the other direction) - when the filename assigned in the unix system turns out to be too long for windows to "recognize" the file). So my thinking is to seek to implement a standard whereby the assumptions can be: 1) A non-programming literate user (a simple "reader" of books); 2) A database created that (by default) can be read in ANY version of Calibre (Cross Platform) - and thus with the default set by the LEAST permissive file system - ie Windows. It may be - however - that if this was not premised at the start of the project - at this point in time - to CHANGE this would be so GREAT a task that, at least for the moment, it is not something that would be viable or desirable to look into. Alternatively - if this is not as "deeply entrenched" - but could be subject to a more "simple" fix - I would highly recommend its being considered in a future update. Thanks again for this discussion and your help.