Why use collections?

[kacir]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

actually i'm starting to think collections might be *better* than folders. i can add more than one tag to a book and it will then appear in several collections ... which you can't do with folders.

Of course you CAN have the same file in many different folders. Even on Windows. (**)
Other operating systems have (and have had for a looooong time) hardlinks and symlinks.
Operating systems, like, for example, Linux, that is at the heart of the Reader.

A bunch of data, that is contains file content on disk has an ionode address (basically a number). Directories are just special files that contain names of files that reside in the directory together with ionode where each of the files resides. It is not a problem for bunch of files to have the same ionode address. So when you create another link (or symlink) - an 'instance' of file you do not copy data, you just use the same ionode address.
For better explanation see wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link

(**)
hardlink on XP
FSUTIL hardlink create <new filename> <existing filename>
see http://www.ss64.com/nt/fsutil.html

Symlink in XP
MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target
LINKD Link [/D] Target
see http://www.ss64.com/nt/mklink.html

[Lady Blue]

I didn't understand a word of that kacir, but it sure sounded impressive.

I haven't delved in to Calibre yet, though I'm sure it's a wonderful tool and I'll get around to using it someday.

I do use collections on my 505. I keep a lot of books on my Reader so that I don't need to keep connecting it to my computer to add, delete and move things all the time. I keep collections in like manner to everyone else. I have collections for biography/autobiography, American History, Ancient History, general history, letters/memoirs, mystery, and many other categories as well as by author and series. It helps immensely in browsing for what I might want to read next and makes the search less tedious.

I do still wish that the Reader supported real directories, though, and the ability to move a title from one directory folder to another right on the Reader itself. I also wish that when you have collections on a memory card in the Reader, they wouldn't disappear when the card is removed and re-inserted (as they do now.) That's not really such a big deal though. I just don't remove the card.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by kacir

Of course you CAN have the same file in many different folders. Even on Windows. (**)

Well, sort of. Windows prior to Vista using NTFS can have a junction points. Vista adds true symbolic links.

Although, I'm not sure what your point is here. I think people were talking about Folders on their ebook device. And very few people have or use shell access to it.

BOb

[lovemov]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

I also wish that when you have collections on a memory card in the Reader, they wouldn't disappear when the card is removed and re-inserted (as they do now.) That's not really such a big deal though. I just don't remove the card.

Actually, this is a handy feature. The collections in the card only contains all the books in that particular card. And in a different SD, I may have different collections so I simply swaap cards while needed.
My only hope the collection feature in Sony Library can be easier to use (like in Calibre), at least, when list all books in list view, it should show which collection(s) the book is in and can be easily modified there. Also, collection feature isn't quite stable in the reader (sometimes it simply lost all the collections and I have to recreate them.) When you have couple of hundreds or even thousands of books, it takes forever to make things neat, sigh...

[kacir]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Although, I'm not sure what your point is here. I think people were talking about Folders on their ebook device. And very few people have or use shell access to it.

Zelda said that the collections were actually better than folders because THE SAME file can "be" in several collections at the same time.
My point was that you can have the same file in several *folders* as well. Most of the devices run Linux and if they had true folders it would be trivial to add functionality to have the same file in several folders using either hard links or symbolic links.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by kacir

Zelda said that the collections were actually better than folders because THE SAME file can "be" in several collections at the same time.
My point was that you can have the same file in several *folders* as well. Most of the devices run Linux and if they had true folders it would be trivial to add functionality to have the same file in several folders using either hard links or symbolic links.

that's a good point. actually what i was really trying to say (sorry i was unclear) is that i see collections as "virtual folders" with this added functionality of hard / symbolic links to propagate the same file into multiple collections very easily. this *is* possible with folders in some systems, as you say, but it's a function many people are not aware of and wouldn't know how to use. i know it exists but wouldn't have the first idea how to implement it...

although, for me it's unimportant on my pc (for my ebooks, anyway) because i only use the collections on my liseuse. my library is catalogued in calibre and i can use tags there (which also can be considered, for the sake of argument, "virtual folders").

anyway, it seems to me that the collections system is very close to folders using links already.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

anyway, it seems to me that the collections system is very close to folders using links already.

Yes you are quite right. That is exactly what collections are. They are folders that only have symbolic links to the ebooks. Granted it may not be implemented that way on the device, ie using symlinks on the file system. But, the end result is the same.

If only they would let you Nest collections that would be great, it would be like TAGS and Folders in a way.

Good observation.

BOb

[PieOPah]

Up until recently I never used the tags in Calibre and had no idea that they added the books into collections.

I basically use the tags so that I can identify which books I have read and which book sI have copied to the reader. This way if I ever need to add all the books back again I can quickly sort on the unread books or if I haven't yet copied a book to the reader I can find this by checking which don't have the copied tag...

I was quite surprised when I checked the collections one day to suddenly find a few extras that I never expected to see

Now that I know about it I have considered using them.

One thing that would be great (but I doubt possible) would be to have a filter on the reader itself so you could find books that were only in multiple categories eg a book that was tagged comedy AND Sci-Fi - it would help if you were after a specific type of book...