Quote:
Originally Posted by Agama
Ideas so far:
1) Add physical books to calibre as "empty" .lit formats, (as in 'literal' = physical book), and then view this format data in CC's book data.
2) Add a custom column to calibre to specify format: eBook|physical|both
Any suggestions on the merits of these or other solutions would be most welcome.
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I think there might be a fourth case: books to buy someday. In other words, books that are neither 'e' nor 'p' but are in the catalog for some reason or another. But putting that aside ...
I think that #2 introduces a problem, not being able to simply ask if a book is 'e' or 'p'. Any question of that form would require an "or" search, as in 'e or b'.
Idea 1 has a problem because the format type would have meaning (txt == 'e' etc) and there is no way to have a book with no formats, meaning that if you ever wanted "neither e nor p" you would need a third format. In addition, idea 1 suffers from the problem that the information "meaning" is derived from the information itself because semantically unrelated information is interpreted by you to provide the information you wish.
I think I would make two Yes/No columns, one for eBook and one for pBook. That would make clear the status of the book. The "information container" precisely specifies what the information means. The "Yes" value would mean the obvious thing. I would choose "Empty" to mean "No", but you could just as easily choose "No". Of course, this scheme introduces a problem: how in CC to ask if a book is neither or both. The answer: if you want "neither" then you pick either column, long-press on whatever you chose as 'No', select "Matching", then go to the other column and tap on 'No'. You will see books that are neither. If you want "both" you do the same thing but using "Yes".