BookONO wants to be a Calibre alternative

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

File names I understand, although since I have full control of how the files are named once they're exported I have trouble seeing how it can matter particularly much. But then that's just from my own perspective.

Because folders are how my NAS sorts my books, and how my cybook sorts them, and because i want to keep the possibility to browse the library outside whatever program i'm using.
I don't want folder with author's name, not always. Sometimes it's the name of the series, sometimes the author, sometimes something else.
Stuff sorted the way my brain works, not the way some program decided was best for me. .

Yeah, export can do that, but I can't be bothered to export everytime I add a book or make a change.

[Istvan diVega]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Stuff sorted the way my brain works, not the way some program decided was best for me. .

Makes perfect sense now and thanks for explaining. I've just never changed how I use Calibre, nor actually inquired about anyone else's way of doing things, so it's hard to see beyond my own modus operandi.

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Stuff sorted the way my brain works, not the way some program decided was best for me. .

Calibre doesn't presume to know what's best for you. It uses the database structure that the dev team felt is most suitable for the(ir) program. As a user, you can either leave it or take it, and write your own software, use alternatives, or pay someone to code a program that meets exactly your preferences. A few thousand bucks should do the trick, not counting continued support!

Sorry if this is a little blunt. Your posts ("can't use", "decides what's best for me") give off a "victim" vibe, and considering that Calibre is free, open source, and a project that the developers and contributors put countless of unpaid hours into, I find that attitude a little off. I do apologize if that is a misinterpretation on my part, though.

[auspex]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I understand that you understand; I already knew that

But you gave us the details for people like me. I also understand that people would want their own directory structures, but really couldn't see the why. Nicely summarized.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Mivo

Calibre doesn't presume to know what's best for you. It uses the database structure that the dev team felt is most suitable for the(ir) program. As a user, you can either leave it or take it, and write your own software, use alternatives, or pay someone to code a program that meets exactly your preferences. A few thousand bucks should do the trick, not counting continued support!

Sorry if this is a little blunt. Your posts ("can't use", "decides what's best for me") give off a "victim" vibe, and considering that Calibre is free, open source, and a project that the developers and contributors put countless of unpaid hours into, I find that attitude a little off. I do apologize if that is a misinterpretation on my part, though.

Yes it do presume i want to use one folder per author. Not the case !
Yeah, so ?
Free or not it don't change the fact -> It won't do what I need it to do. It's not usable. Period. I'll gladly pay for a program that do, if such alternative existed. Or I'll gladly pay the calibre dev to have that. But everyone think calibre is wonderfully perfect, that there is absolutely no need for improvement.

The "deal with it" attitude is annoying. Is it THAT hard to understand that other people have different needs or way to see things ? That what works for you don't necessarily works for everyone else ?

So I handled it manually, while making up my own program.

[caleb72]

I'm really happy to see someone else trying out something. I love my Calibre, but I've often wondered why I don't see too many options floating around. Maybe people are content with their cloud storage or whatever.

Or maybe I'm just one of those obsessive cataloguers who should spend less time cataloguing and more time doing something else.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

But everyone think calibre is wonderfully perfect, that there is absolutely no need for improvement.

I am one of Calibre advocates. I think it is a great, extremely powerful, highly customizable program.
I *don't* think Calibre is perfect. I have just different priorities regarding what should be improved ;-). Like interface that could be navigated just by keyboard. Just try to set some option using autokey (linux) or autohothey (windows) in Calibre.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Free or not it don't change the fact -> It won't do what I need it to do. It's not usable. Period. I'll gladly pay for a program that do, if such alternative existed. Or I'll gladly pay the calibre dev to have that. But everyone think calibre is wonderfully perfect, that there is absolutely no need for improvement.

The "deal with it" attitude is annoying. Is it THAT hard to understand that other people have different needs or way to see things ? That what works for you don't necessarily works for everyone else ?

The real problem, for you, is that the developers disagree with your interpretation of how the program should work. The program is open-source. Find a group of like-minded users, fork the code and make it do what you want.

Asking developers to make a change that will fill the needs of a minority of users, while causing fairly major rewrite of how the database works is a bit arrogant.

So yes. Deal with it. Find yourself another piece of software that fits your needs or write it yourself. Whining about won't make it happen.

[frostschutz]

It's meant to be a complement, not a replacement/alternative.

Even says so on their site except they wrote compliment.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by auspex

But you gave us the details for people like me. I also understand that people would want their own directory structures, but really couldn't see the why. Nicely summarized.

Hm, OK. Glad to help. I tend to ramble or preach to the choir sometimes. Bad habit of mine.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yes it do presume i want to use one folder per author. Not the case !
Yeah, so ?

....

The "deal with it" attitude is annoying. Is it THAT hard to understand that other people have different needs or way to see things ? That what works for you don't necessarily works for everyone else ?

No, it isn't hard... I like folder structures too, but not for everything. I certainly wouldn't want to keep track of (at least) two different file formats, books that I want to have in different genres, and so on, and keep all stuf synced between the different versions. I'm happy to have Calibre do that, and keep everything together in its own databse.

Still, I *do* like my own folders, and I don't want to trust all of my books to Calibre.

Why don't you do as I do? Keep your own folder structure, but also have Calibre import it, and keep its own database alongside it. E-books are small enough for not having to care about storage space nowadays.

Then you always have a non-Calibre "base library" to browse or fall back on, or use in other programs if you ever want or need to.

If someone is interested in my setup:

Spoiler:

D:\Calibre Library
Main Calibre Library

D:\Calibre FeedBooks
Public Domain books from FeedBooks. This is a "dump" library, where I can browse tag/genre, and year of publication. If I decide to read something, it moves to Calibre Workplace to be reviewed/edited (metadata, mainly), and then it gets exported to my base epub folder. After that, it moves to my main Calibre Library. (Yes, I'm a fan of FeedBooks' PD works.)

D:\Calibre Workspace
This library is used for first import. I edit metadata here, use Modify Epub... essentially I set everything as I want it to. After that, I export the books, run them through Sigil where needed, and stash them into my base folder.

Then the folder structure:

D:\eBooks\_BASE EPUB_
My base folder, which is the basis for my main Calibre Library. Exported from Calibre Workplace, edited with Sigil where necessary. It only contains EPUBs. These will probably never be changed again, and are used to browse as a normal directory structure, as a fallback to create a new library if need be, or as base format in a future program that may be incompatible with Calibre and its tags. These books are completely clean, apart from "Series" and "Series Index" as set by Calibre. (I wanted those in there, in case I ever need to rebuild my library for whatever reason.) If I would need to take them out as well, I'd import this folder into a new Calibre library, remove non-DC metadata using Modify Epub, and export the books again.

D:\eBooks\Dump
This folder contains mainly public domain works and freebees in many formats from many websites (sometimes even complete website dumps) that I may one day want to read. If I want a PD-work, I often look here first, and I often have different versions. If I decide to read something, it goes into Calibre Workplace, and then eventually to the base folder and into the main library.

D:\eBooks\Original EPUB
D:\eBooks\Original AZW3
D:\eBooks\Original MOBI
Unchanged versions of original, bought books (without DRM. Probably they'll never be touched again.

[EowynCarter]

Though about that kind of things, but that would be doing the job twice.

Seams to pose more problem than it fix.

[MV64]

I like Calibre, but it's not perfect. Sounds like this thing could be cool.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Though about that kind of things, but that would be doing the job twice.

Seams to pose more problem than it fix.

Mwah; not to me it doesn't. I want to have that base epub folder anyway, so I can move away from Calibre, or start completely anew for whatever reason. I just fix the ebooks as I want them in the Workplace library, and export them. Then I move them from the Workplace library to the main library, and I'm done.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

That's fine with me, but in my opinion it doesn't fly. Not the way they're presenting it.

You can't say "I don't like this piece of software [Calibre] because it doesn't work like I want it to work, and it doesn't do what I want it to do", and then turn around and use that exact piece of software to get your own product started. To make matters worse, that new product is not open source. In my view, that's just opportunistic and very lame.

Sure you can. They didn't say everything about calibre was bad and didn't work/do what they want. Taken as a whole package it doesn't work how they want or in the way they want it, individual elements though may be fine.

So they've written their own software that does what they want, the way they want it and they've used calibre for the bits where it does do what they want in a way that's usable from their app. Which would be the conversion since it's usable via invoking with cmd line args.

If their long term plans are to have a mobile or tablet port of their app, then that'll be one reason why even the conversion side of calibre will be dumped. GPL isn't really compatible with the iOS store for example and invoking other apps then getting the result back isn't afaik possible on at least iOS, not sure about android?

I really see nothing wrong with the approach they've taken.

As it happens, I'd prefer it if calibre didn't take over my folder structure too. However, I understand why the developer chose to do this and I'm interested in seeing how the bookONO developer will work around the issue of outside changes to the folder structure that the app doesn't know about.

Certainly doable, but will likely hit similar issues to those faced by iTunes users who keep music in a folder outside iTune's control.

The only bit I do take issue with is the reviewer, who said it's more open, when the truth is quite the opposite. Calibre is open source, bookONO isn't as yet and according to a quote above from the author, probably won't be. It's an odd statement really.

[Istvan diVega]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

If someone is interested in my setup:

Bugger me, that looks like a s***load of work. I'd spend far more time getting books sorted out and tweaked than I'd spend reading if I were to adopt something like that. Which kinda defeats the purpose, or at least my purpose.

I have two folders; Calibre and Calibre_PDF. I've had those since I started reading ebooks and today, half a dozen years and several thousand books later, it still covers all my requirements.