Calibre version 1.00?

[adrian1944]

Is it not time to consider Calibre ready to advance to the very real milestone of version 1.00 rather than the prelude area we are in.

I think I have been with calibre since around 0.24 and the progress has been phenomenal the extra items included at 0.70 were fantastic with the user defined columns.

At the same time I do not see the same leap forward in what I currently read in this forum, with long threads about the beauty or not of the interface and the new buttons. Surely we would prefer the substance of the programme to how pretty it looks on whatever platform one is using.

I also either do not understand or fail to see the point of some of some of the future changes that are suggested which seem more what one individual would like from calibre rather than benefits to the main (silent) base of users.

I am not saying that there are not changes that could be useful but I do feel a plateau has been reached hence my question.

Thanks to Kovid and all the developers for a fantatic programme but please keep concentrating on substance over form as up to now


adrian

[chaley]

Originally Posted by adrian1944

I also either do not understand or fail to see the point of some of some of the future changes that are suggested which seem more what one individual would like from calibre rather than benefits to the main (silent) base of users.

The silent majority is wonderful -- it agrees with everybody! (At least until it doesn't. )

[kovidgoyal]

Not too worry, I have no intention of getting side tracked into spending time on prettyfying calibre. As for 1.0 there are a few areas left in the calibre code base that need to be cleaned up before it reaches 1.0

Just a few of the major features on the drawing board

1) Browsing and downloading book collections from multiple ebook sources
2) An optional networked backend to store your library
3) A much more powerful PDF conversion engine
4) Various improvements to the viewer to support annotations
5) A complete overhaul of the db backend to make it more robust/faster add more complete metadata
6) Much more powerful add books and download metadata systems

I have no idea which of these features will get done when or even if. But they all have higher priorities than prettification. My current priority is cleaning up the main calibre GUI to solve various long standing issues, hence all the noise about icons and minor tweaks, just ignore it.

[marcaronson408]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

2) An optional networked backend to store your library

Would this enable one to have a single Caliber library that can be simultaneously accessed by multiple clients on a LAN? If I am properly understanding the intent of this feature, it would be a wonderful capability.

But they all have higher priorities than prettification. My current priority is cleaning up the main calibre GUI to solve various long standing issues, hence all the noise about icons and minor tweaks, just ignore it.

For what it's worth, I agree completely with your priorities.

Marc

[kovidgoyal]

Yes, basically it will be a network protocol for connecting to libraries. It will support concurrent access.

[Jedai]

That would be absolutely wonderful !!
Good luck with this. (Though I must say that your current improvement of the interface is also welcome, all too often free software communities neglect the interface of their tool)

--
Jedaï

[mikij]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just a few of the major features on the drawing board

4) Various improvements to the viewer to support annotations

I have no idea which of these features will get done when or even if. But they all have higher priorities than prettification.

This would be great for us poor Sony users (sorry: former users of Sony software - because since some time I only use Calibre - but current users of their reader !

I agree, making Calibre prettier will not change a lot, but functionality improvements are always welcome.

[rcuadro]

I dont know about most but I prefer a program to be more useful than pretty. Especially for the price charged for Calibre
There are several prettier programs out there that do about a tenth than what Calibre does and they cost money... some quite a bit

[Worldwalker]

Kovid, what you should do is put up a list of the top five enhancements you're thinking about making to calibre, and let people vote on them with their donations -- a dollar a vote. Maybe we could donate for the purchase of a capital "C" too!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

One of these days, some one will put upper case "C"s on sale and I'll buy a bunch to donate to Kovid.

[guyanonymous]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

1) Browsing and downloading book collections from multiple ebook sources

Would this just be hard drive locations?

Or might it include an interface to allow direct download of epubs from Project Gutenberg (with proper author/title instead of that PITA number they use )....

[kovidgoyal]

It would be online sources, like PG or MR or feedbooks.

[Worldwalker]

This is what I've promised Kovid that if he implements it, I will buy him a dinner in any restaurant in town if and when we wind up in the same city. *looks at the preceding sentence* Well, that sentence should be taken out and shot, but you know what I mean.