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Worldwalker · 05-06-2010, 03:58 PM

The first personal computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1k of RAM (which also was the video memory); naturally, I wrote games on it. In machine code. Manually poked into memory because I didn't even have space for a hex loader. I still have a soft spot for the Z80 chip. My first professional programming job was in FORTRAN on a PDP-11/34 running RSX-11M. After I moved on to newer and better computers (with almost the power of a cheap cell phone of today!), it took me years to really internalize the idea that I now had more than a 16k partition to work in, and I could freely use booleans instead of flag bits. When I think back to the things I did back then, when my whole dataspace was smaller than some variables I've used in the years since, I am both awed at what I did, and ashamed of the sloppy, bloated code I've written since (I should probably buy some bad code offsets).

Thanks a lot, Disfrutador, you're making me relive my past. Now I feel ancient.

Oddly enough, I've never been fond of the SERRAted edge books (though I do have the free ones on my 505, and several dead-trees ones floating around my overloaded shelves, because I am a bookaholic). The concept felt forced and the save-the-children bit seemed to override good storytelling at times. I've never liked the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, either, possibly because its "fill-in" nature constrained it too much, something that hurts a lot of prequels. On the other hand, I really wish she'd write more Diana Tregarde books, and more Free Bards books ... for some reason, my favorites are all the series that don't sell. One great thing about Mercedes Lackey: if you don't like one of her series, there's always a different one. She is a remarkably versatile writer. Also, Skandranon is too awesome for words. Though I'm sure he'd find some.

Back to calibre, your performance issues seem atypical to me. I'll leave that for the heavy hitters, though; I'm still very much calibre newbie.

One thing you'll quickly realize about calibre: it is advancing at a remarkable rate. It adds non-trivial new features in almost every weekly build. What it is today is so far beyond what it was when I first started using it a few months ago (I lived without saved searches? non-collection tags? merge?) and the way things are going, who knows what it's going to look like by next year? It'll probably wash my dishes and change the oil in my car.

05-06-2010, 03:58 PM	#8
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	The first personal computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1k of RAM (which also was the video memory); naturally, I wrote games on it. In machine code. Manually poked into memory because I didn't even have space for a hex loader. I still have a soft spot for the Z80 chip. My first professional programming job was in FORTRAN on a PDP-11/34 running RSX-11M. After I moved on to newer and better computers (with almost the power of a cheap cell phone of today!), it took me years to really internalize the idea that I now had more than a 16k partition to work in, and I could freely use booleans instead of flag bits. When I think back to the things I did back then, when my whole dataspace was smaller than some variables I've used in the years since, I am both awed at what I did, and ashamed of the sloppy, bloated code I've written since (I should probably buy some bad code offsets). Thanks a lot, Disfrutador, you're making me relive my past. Now I feel ancient. Oddly enough, I've never been fond of the SERRAted edge books (though I do have the free ones on my 505, and several dead-trees ones floating around my overloaded shelves, because I am a bookaholic). The concept felt forced and the save-the-children bit seemed to override good storytelling at times. I've never liked the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, either, possibly because its "fill-in" nature constrained it too much, something that hurts a lot of prequels. On the other hand, I really wish she'd write more Diana Tregarde books, and more Free Bards books ... for some reason, my favorites are all the series that don't sell. One great thing about Mercedes Lackey: if you don't like one of her series, there's always a different one. She is a remarkably versatile writer. Also, Skandranon is too awesome for words. Though I'm sure he'd find some. Back to calibre, your performance issues seem atypical to me. I'll leave that for the heavy hitters, though; I'm still very much calibre newbie. One thing you'll quickly realize about calibre: it is advancing at a remarkable rate. It adds non-trivial new features in almost every weekly build. What it is today is so far beyond what it was when I first started using it a few months ago (I lived without saved searches? non-collection tags? merge?) and the way things are going, who knows what it's going to look like by next year? It'll probably wash my dishes and change the oil in my car.