No need to reply to Turtle's "blah, blah, blah", devoid of substance as usual.
So here's the real deal, folks: in Marvin 2, when you tap the "Author sort..."* menu item in the library, you get to see exactly what you're looking for: all the authors in your library, sorted intelligently based on their last names. "Ernest Hemingway" under "H", not "E" (that's dumb like hell, IMO), etc.
But in Marvin 3, there is no such option. The only sorting of authors in the comprehensive authors list available in Marvin 3 is the
dumb one, based on authors' first names. Hemingway under "E".
I find this unacceptable, and I believe Adrian and other Marvin users will find this disappointing as well. What's the use of upgrading software, if the new software version is dumber than the previous version?
I am
not saying that Marvin 3 is dumber than Marvin 2
overall – nope, it's not, but in
some respects (important for me), it is. Over the last few weeks, I've been trying to alert Kris to each such instance; some of the lost Marvin 2 smartness/features have already been restored by Kris as of tonight, but there are still quite a few things, right now, that Marvin 2 can do but Marvin 3 cannot do (or it does them, in my experience, in an inferior way).
I'm not blaming Kris – this comes with the territory, whenever you decide to "rewrite the software from the ground up", which is what Marvin 3 is. It's not a direct continuation of Marvin 2, but basically a new app inspired by Marvin 2, trying to offer even more than Marvin 2, and in a more reliable way. In some respects, Marvin 3 is a resounding success – for example, highlighting is pure pleasure now (none of your Marvin 2 wobbliness anymore, when highlighting across paragraph or page boundaries). But there are still quite a few Marvin 2 features that seem to have been "forgotten by the wayside" as Kris was building the app anew from the ground up. The role of us Beta-testers is to remind Kris of those forgotten features and certain forgotten smart ways in which Marvin 2 used to accomplish things, so that we can restore all those Marvin 2 features and at least replicate (if not improve) that Marvin 2 smartness in Marvin 3.
To clarify: Kris has so far
not (as far as I'm aware) recognized that the "dumb" authors sorting in Marvin 3 is a flaw, or that he intends to rectify it. (That's just another Turtle dream.) Nope: in our conversations, Kris has been, on the contrary, insisting that the "dumb" authors sorting in Marvin 3 is a necessity.
I've been trying to persuade Kris that that is not the case – but with no success so far. I've written very long messages to Kris on this subject, and I can post them on an impromptu webpage if anyone would like to read them. (They are
very long.)
Unfortunately, from a Beta-tester's point of view, I find the Marvin 3 Beta-testing process to be distinctly inferior compared to the Marvin 2 and Marvin 1 Beta-testing days – and I fear whether Marvin 3 will not suffer for it. Kris himself is satisfied with the new Beta-testing (he's only conducting isolated discussions between himself and individual Beta-testers), but Kris is only one side of the Beta-testing process. I can distinctly remember that during Marvin 2 and Marvin 1 Beta-testing, we frequently arrived at clarity in troubleshooting an issue because many Beta-testers could provide their own input, suggesting a solution. That is why I can, once again, only invite all the current Marvin 3 Beta-testers to join the Marvin Beta-testing mailing list at Google Groups (as explained
here) even if, this time around, Kris won't be able to listen to us there or provide any feedback to us there. However, it would
still be very beneficial for Beta testers to be able to discuss any unresolved/unclear beta issues among themselves.
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* "author sort" is a horrible misnomer, mechanically copied by Marvin from Calibre, as I've been trying to alert Kris for many years – to no avail. Yes, it's a misnomer, but at least it produces the expected
smart results in Marvin 2, unlike in Marvin 3.