Any way I could get calibre usable ?

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

My point goes back to the beginning. If you are going to go to multiple entries per book for version control and use custom tags to differentiate the versions (that can be done now) then there isn't any reason to cruise through the database/file structure to muck around with books.

But, again, if you have such a need use the save to disk feature to keep a clean hierarchy file structure separate from calibre's database. This file structure as currently implemented would have the metadata all updated and be ready to tweak to your hearts desire outside of calibre.

I look forward to seeing the end product your proposing. Personally I don't see the gains outweighing the time put into coding such a system, but its not my time.

I wish you well.

What I gain is not having to use save to disk to get something clean.
Don't know, maybe at some point I'll code something. For now, i'll live on without software, for the lack of one fitting.

Not felling like using calibre right now, far less coding anything for it. I'll stay away from it as much as I can help.

[itimpi]

Just a small point, if you have used any modern programming language then Python is very easy to use/learn. The learning curve tends to be (like many other languages) in learning about all the library functions available. However when jumping into an already working system this tends to be less of an issue as most of the hard work has already been done and so there are lots of working examples already in the existing code for most relevant areas.

[Perkin]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

My point goes back to the beginning. If you are going to go to multiple entries per book for version control and use custom tags to differentiate the versions (that can be done now) then there isn't any reason to cruise through the database/file structure to muck around with books.

I think using this method would work quite well, however one extra feature calibre could do with having implemented if you was to go this route, would be a 'copy existing entry as new book' so you could create several identical entries, (perhaps even empty file-format wise) which you could then update with your various versions.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Perkin

I think using this method would work quite well, however one extra feature calibre could do with having implemented if you was to go this route, would be a 'copy existing entry as new book' so you could create several identical entries, (perhaps even empty file-format wise) which you could then update with your various versions.

You can just: 1) add an empty book, 2) select it, 3) select a book you want to copy, and 4) hit Alt-M. The book is copied.

[Worldwalker]

Eowyn, there's one big thing you don't understand:

Eowyn's view: The majority of calibre users are unhappy with it, and would like it to work entirely differently, and a small minority wants to use it the way it is.

Everyone else's view: The majority of calibre users are happy with it, and wants to use it the way it is, and a small minority would like it to work entirely differently.

You see yourself as part of a majority, and those people who disagree with you as some kind of minority with a stranglehold on calibre development, keeping you from getting what you want. The numbers and the whole principle of open-source development say you're wrong.

You came in here and started by insulting people -- "Any way I could get calibre usable?" You insisted you were right and everyone else, especially those poor, deluded fools who think calibre is doing what they want, was wrong. You insulted the devs, you insulted the thread participants, and you insulted a million or more happy calibre users. You didn't ask; you made demands. Rude demands. Yet when anyone has suggested that you actually do the work you want yourself, you've squirmed like a worm on a hook and come up with endless reasons why someone else should do the work for you.

It doesn't work that way. Everyone else here is happy with calibre being a book organizer. You want to turn it into a file organizer. Fine, if that's what you want, then freaking code it. If you can't or won't code it, don't want to pay a coder-for-hire for it, and can't get anyone here interested in doing it (not surprising, after the things you've said to them), then you're out of luck. Nobody in this forum, nobody anywhere, has an obligation to do what you demand just because you want them to, and the sooner you realize that, the better off everyone will be.

There are ways for you to do exactly what you want with calibre as it stands. These have been explained to you. You have chosen to reject those techniques and continue demanding that calibre be rewritten into a file manager because you want it to be one. By the way, when you use the non-zero number of people wanting similar changes as "proof" you're right, that number remains small enough to count on my fingers. Compared to the number of happy calibre users in this forum (let alone anywhere else) it's minuscule.

If you want to get some results, either apologize to the participants in this thread (you can explicitly leave me out if you'd like) and ask, not demand, what you want, or go somewhere else that your attitude is appreciated. I have never seen anyone get ripped into the way you have been, and I'm including the people who started with some form of "Calibre is junk and Kovid doesn't know what he's doing".

Oh, and as for your whining that people want calibre exactly like it was "before", whenever that was: Someone who started using calibre when I did, last spring, wouldn't recognize the program today. Saved searches, user-defined columns, flagging flies on devices, movable libraries, restrictions, and hundreds of other things -- read the changelog for details -- have been added since then. Notice that it still hasn't reached 1.0. Calibre is very much a project in development, and its users embrace change more than the users of pretty much any program I've ever seen. All of those changes have been suggested by users (I'm the one who pushed for tag removal, for instance) and they have all been either coded by the people who suggested them, or added to the queue for the devs to get to when they wanted them.

But there is a difference, a big difference, a @#$*@# huge difference, between wanting a program improved and wanting it turned into another kind of program entirely. Calibre is a book manager. People are happy with calibre being a book manager. They all have file managers. They don't want to turn a good book manager into a half-assed file manager, and that's what dropping development on all the things that matter and turning their efforts to changing calibre into a file manager will do.

You think otherwise? You think calibre can be a file manager and a book manager at the same time?

Then PUT UP OR SHUT UP.

[EowynCarter]

You think calibre can be a file manager and a book manager at the same time?

Yes, it could. There is hardly anything impossible in programing.

But, now, calibre could be anything, i've decided I don't give a damm.

Perkin, that the kind of think i would have liked too. But it looks like that, unless you're ready do code it all yourself, you're out of luck.

What happened to the collaborative part of open source ?
You know, people proposes ideas, ideas get discussed, then implemented if enough people see it fit.
Why don't calibre have a ticket system ? To allow proposing stuff, see how many are interested, help people interested by an idea to get together.

Nevermind, guess I'm just loosing my time.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Why don't calibre have a ticket system ?

It does. You can raise feature requests here simply by choosing "Enhancement" as the ticket type.

Graham

[toddos]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yes, it could. There is hardly anything impossible in programing.

And that's how we get massive pieces of crap software like emacs and itunes. Sure, technically nothing is impossible. That doesn't mean it's possible to do it well.

Why stop at a turning Calibre into a file manager? Why not add version control? Email? Web browsing? Book store interfaces? Social networking? There are a lot of things that could be added to Calibre, but that doesn't mean they're right for what Calibre is.

Though now that I think about it, integrating a version control system in calibre would be kinda nice, though with books mostly being in binary formats it's really not all that useful.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by toddos

And that's how we get massive pieces of crap software like emacs and itunes. Sure, technically nothing is impossible. That doesn't mean it's possible to do it well.

Why stop at a turning Calibre into a file manager? Why not add version control? Email? Web browsing? Book store interfaces? Social networking? There are a lot of things that could be added to Calibre, but that doesn't mean they're right for what Calibre is.

Just browsing the file into the OS file browser is not effective, because it lacks the "book management" function. Book management alone isn't effective either. One don't work without the other.
A good software is a software that will do both.
Or, at the very least, let the files be, so an other software can do the file management part.
Spotify manage my music without altering the file. That don't lessen it's ability in music management.

[Manichean]

Eowyn, you've already said that you have no further interest in Calibre. So, please, let it go already. This is getting exactly nowhere.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

i've decided I don't give a damm.

Yet here you're still here.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

But it looks like that, unless you're ready do code it all yourself, you're out of luck.

I have tried hard to provide constructive feedback throughout this discussion, but with your endless supply self-pity and whining you make it that very difficult.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

What happened to the collaborative part of open source ? You know, people proposes ideas, ideas get discussed, then implemented if enough people see it fit.

That is exactly how calibre is developed. With the full understanding that final code is approved, adjusted or rejected by Kovid the creator of calibre.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Why don't calibre have a ticket system ?

I know you looked at calibre's site, so I'm surprised you missed it (see attached).

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

To allow proposing stuff, see how many are interested, help people interested by an idea to get together.

There have been many folks that have done exactly that right here in this forum. But they most likely didn't start off by saying the software was useless in its current form.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Just browsing the file into the OS file browser is not effective, because it lacks the "book management" function. Book management alone isn't effective either. One don't work without the other.
A good software is a software that will do both.

It is hard to take many of your arguments seriously when it is obvious that you don't fully understand the feature set of calibre. Calibre does both. With tags, custom columns and advanced search, calibre acts as a file browser for books in its library better then any file browser out there.

[EowynCarter]

There have been many folks that have done exactly that right here in this forum. But they most likely didn't start off by saying the software was useless in its current form.

Sorry, that just what i'm thinking.

It is hard to take many of your arguments seriously when it is obvious that you don't fully understand the feature set of calibre. Calibre does both. With tags, custom columns and advanced search, calibre acts as a file browser for books in its library better then any file browser out there.

And make browsing without it impossible. I don't want to be locked into calibre to use my books. Why is it that hard to understand ?

That is exactly how calibre is developed. With the full understanding that final code is approved, adjusted or rejected by Kovid the creator of calibre.

I don't really fell it that way. More like : Want change ? Do it yourself, because nobody care about anything. Not really the right attitude.
I never felt it that way on the sigil board.

I have tried hard to provide constructive feedback throughout this discussion, but with your endless supply self-pity and whining you make it that very difficult

Well, some tried to provide with solution. I explained why these didn't fixed my problem.
Other, just went "hey, what's the mater. Calibre is perfect, just adapt to it".

[Lady Fitzgerald]

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

I should have know better than doing that. But what's done's done.

[DiapDealer]

I should have know better than doing that. But what's done's done.

Unfortunately, it seems, "what's done" drags on ad naseum.