Calibre: lrf2mobi?

[JeffElkins]

Does such a tool exist?

[kovidgoyal]

nope.

[edembowski]

You can't do it in Calibre, but you can do it on the command line, with additional tools. Use lrf2html and then html2mobi. If you need to edit the meta data after creation, you can use mobi2mobi.

- Ed

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

nope.

Does that mean it never will? Or, just that it doesn't exist at the moment.

I would love to be able to use calibre to manage my ebooks. It is an elegantly written program, and well worth buying. But, I'm a Kindle owner, so it's usefulness to me is really limited.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by edembowski

You can't do it in Calibre, but you can do it on the command line, with additional tools. Use lrf2html and then html2mobi. If you need to edit the meta data after creation, you can use mobi2mobi.

- Ed

You know .... I tried using mobi2mobi today. I'm sorry, but I do wish that program had the ease of use that calibre has. The GUI is worthless to me if the program just throws me into an endless loop of me telling it where the mobi2mobi win32 file is. I tell it ... it sees it ... then it asks me again. And, on and on it goes.

[kovidgoyal]

The next ebbok format calibre will support is epub. Hopefully amazon willsee the light and add epub support to the kindle, in which case you will be able to use calibre with it.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

You know .... I tried using mobi2mobi today. I'm sorry, but I do wish that program had the ease of use that calibre has. The GUI is worthless to me if the program just throws me into an endless loop of me telling it where the mobi2mobi win32 file is. I tell it ... it sees it ... then it asks me again. And, on and on it goes.

Since mobi2mobi is a command line program it does not have a graphical GUI. If you need a GUI download the GUI program also that calls mobi2mobi to do the work.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by tompe

Since mobi2mobi is a command line program it does not have a graphical GUI. If you need a GUI download the GUI program also that calls mobi2mobi to do the work.

I did download the GUI version. Perhaps I didn't make that clear by saying "the GUI is worthless to me" .... it was the GUI version .... still not working.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The next ebbok format calibre will support is epub. Hopefully amazon willsee the light and add epub support to the kindle, in which case you will be able to use calibre with it.

So, I'll take that as a "no" ... you will not ever be adding mobi support. Even if we beg and plead.

[kovidgoyal]

Well I anticipate that most of the next generation of readers will support epub, with the possible exception of the kindle (amazon doesn't seem to want to play nice). In which case it will be only Kindle users begging and pleading, and Kindle users are usually not the kind of people that want to have to do conversions any way.

[JSWolf]

[e:\temp\junk]lrf2html "The Secret Adversary.lrf"
Parsing LRF...
Reading metadata...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "convert_to.py", line 123, in <module>
File "convert_to.py", line 117, in main
File "convert_to.py", line 108, in process_file
File "convert_to.py", line 51, in __init__
File "convert_to.py", line 56, in create_metadata
File "C:\Program Files\calibre\library.zip\calibre\ebooks\lrf\meta. py", line 233, in get_metadata
File "C:\Program Files\calibre\library.zip\calibre\ebooks\lrf\meta. py", line 312, in restore_pos
File "C:\Program Files\calibre\library.zip\calibre\ebooks\lrf\meta. py", line 567, in get_cover
File "C:\Program Files\calibre\library.zip\calibre\ebooks\lrf\meta. py", line 543, in get_objects_by_type
TypeError: 'dict' object is not callable

That is using 0.4.76.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Well I anticipate that most of the next generation of readers will support epub, with the possible exception of the kindle (amazon doesn't seem to want to play nice). In which case it will be only Kindle users begging and pleading, and Kindle users are usually not the kind of people that want to have to do conversions any way.

Ummmm .... Kovid?? Wrong ... or at least, I certainly think you are wrong. Kindle users are pretty much the same as the users of any ebook format. No more or less willing to do conversions than anyone else. And, all mobi readers are not necessarily Kindle owners.

I can understand that you don't want to create an lrf2mobi ... however, I will keep hoping that you do. Absolutely, it's a matter of self interest on my part because, other than the fact that I can't use it to the degree I would like, I think it's a great program. However, I just can't see putting money into supporting the development of a program that I will never be able to use. So, in a sense, we both lose. Me probably more so than you ... but still, I would have been willing to purchase a version of your progrram that did support mobi.

[edembowski]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

So, I'll take that as a "no" ... you will not ever be adding mobi support. Even if we beg and plead.

Calibre does support mobi today. It just doesn't convert from lrf to mobi.

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

... but still, I would have been willing to purchase a version of your progrram that did support mobi.

You can't buy a copy of Calibre, it's free. Feel free to support development, not just financially. Kovid has released it as open source under the GPL, and you can download the sources & modify to suit your needs. You can even post your changes back as a ticket on the tracker. If Kovid likes it, he may roll it into the app, if not you still have the functionality you need.

- Ed

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by edembowski

Calibre does support mobi today. It just doesn't convert from lrf to mobi.


You can't buy a copy of Calibre, it's free. Feel free to support development, not just financially. Kovid has released it as open source under the GPL, and you can download the sources & modify to suit your needs. You can even post your changes back as a ticket on the tracker. If Kovid likes it, he may roll it into the app, if not you still have the functionality you need.

- Ed

I get the feeling you didn't read much of my posts. Because Calibre cannot modify the metadata (as it is seen on the ebook) without converting the ebook into a format that is NOT supported by the Kindle (such as mobi), Calibre, with respect to modifying metadata does not support mobi.

I know I can't "buy" a copy of Calibre. I have a copy. I realize that it is free. However, I am not about to financially support the development of software that is never going to meet my needs. And, because my ebook reader of choice is a Kindle ... Calibre without mobi support ... and without even the hope of future mobi support is not a program that I am likely to financially support.

It's lovely to know that I can modify the program. As soon as I decide to become a programmer, I'll let you all know. Let's see ... medical school, then law school .... sure, why not ... what the hell.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Ummmm .... Kovid?? Wrong ... or at least, I certainly think you are wrong. Kindle users are pretty much the same as the users of any ebook format. No more or less willing to do conversions than anyone else. And, all mobi readers are not necessarily Kindle owners.

Not really, the standout feature of the Kindle is its ease of use (at least if you're only buying from Amazon). For example, Amazon charges for free content like blogs, what is basically a convenience fee. Also Amazon is the only company that doesn't seem to care about supporting open formats.

The reason I am reluctant to add support for MOBI is that it is an old format that will be becoming increasingly obsolete. As such it's not a wise investemnt of my rather limited development time.