[cybmole]

it has, as have my counter points.

Ideally, I could have, for any title
1. original_epub = the version I placed in the library, which is where I want to keep it.
2. epub = a personal reading copy of 1, which I have tweaked and tidied
3. azw: I'd like it to be a conversion of 2. to see how 2. looks in different reader/device

but to get to 3 I have to throw out 1 from the library i.e. I can't easily have all formats of all books in one place which is what I think a library should allow.

nothing new here,except that as calibre has at least 784 user preference options already, some of which are doubtless silly, where's the harm in having one more

taking your text editor analogy: word is quite happy to open a backup file, if one exists & if I tell it to, it is equally happy to let me re-edit the latest version, it does not purport to tell me what my workflow should be. It doesn't say that I cant access the backup unless first I delete any currrent version in the same folder...

now if the response had been: from a tech/design prespective what you want is a huge hassle & no one else wants it so go to back of queue - fine.
if the response is : you are asking for user choice and calibre is NOT about providing options, well... that would seem very strange.
So when the actual response is not going to happen, my way or the highway, it does not seem to gell well ...

but I am (mostly ) resigned to :
compose a short sentence from the following words:

hose, dead, a, flogging, are, you