Any way I could get calibre usable ?

[leday]

For the love of all that's holy, can some moderator PLEASE lock this thread so those with a pathologic need to "get the last word in" can't anymore?

[hidari]

Originally Posted by leday

For the love of all that's holy, can some moderator PLEASE lock this thread so those with a pathologic need to "get the last word in" can't anymore?

IF you do not like the thread. DO not read it. quite simple. There are many threads at MR.

[leday]

For a while there was some good info in this thread and I was learning a few things that I didn't know before about Calibre (which I love BTW), but the cattiness that has resulted and the back-and-forth arguing is getting to be detrimental. That kind of behavior is detrimental to the boards as a whole IMHO and being told simply "not to read it" doesn't solve the problem. I am not the only one who has asked that this thread be closed.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by leday

That kind of behavior is detrimental to the boards as a whole IMHO and being told simply "not to read it" doesn't solve the problem.

After your last post I gave you Karma for having the pathologic need to "get the last word in". Now it looks like the karma was well deserved.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I'm dual booting windows and linux. Installing calibre on the two OS, and on the same library will most likely conflict right ?

It shouldn't, unless you run both boots at the same time. I have my library on my external HD, so I can run it both on my laptop and and home. Unless, naturally, Calibre does things different on Linux than on Windows, folder-wise.

[EowynCarter]

There IS a problem there, with the way calibre manages files. What if, instead of fighting like idiots, we worked together to find a solution, and get these vital changes into calibre done ?
Wouldn't that just make everyone happier in the end ? People like me will be able to use calibre, you won't have support whining and pestering anymore.

So, enough with fighting, let's find a solution and end this once and for all.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I'm dual booting windows and linux. Installing calibre on the two OS, and on the same library will most likely conflict right ?

Wrong.
I have Calibre installed on a tri-booting Windows/Fedora/Ubuntu PC, and all three share the same library. Try it out, you'll be amazed at how easily two installations of Calibre manage the same library.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

There IS a problem there, with the way calibre manages files. What if, instead of fighting like idiots, we worked together to find a solution, and get these vital changes into calibre done ?
Wouldn't that just make everyone happier in the end ? People like me will be able to use calibre, you won't have support whining and pestering anymore.

So, enough with fighting, let's find a solution and end this once and for all.

The solution, as has been said before, would be you coding the behaviour you want and submitting it as a patch, which Kovid, as he has said multiple times before, won't dismiss. A few ways of working around what you perceive to be a problem without the need for some new code have also been suggested.
So, the options are rather simple: Either you accept that nobody currently developing has any interest in changing the way Calibre works and go looking for something else, or you start modifying Calibre the way you'd like it to behave, or you use Calibre with what facilities there are now.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

There IS a problem there, with the way calibre manages files. What if, instead of fighting like idiots, we worked together to find a solution, and get these vital changes into calibre done ?
Wouldn't that just make everyone happier in the end ? People like me will be able to use calibre, you won't have support whining and pestering anymore.

So, enough with fighting, let's find a solution and end this once and for all.

It's a problem only for you and a few others.
It's already been told you, but I will repeat it:

I am a coder, and I know enough python to work on Calibre if I want. To make me work on a software, though, I must either be paid or be interested in adding that feature. In this case, I'm not paid by anyone, and I'm not interested in that feature.
That feature is not vital, despite what you say, because it's interesting for you only, and more importantly my life doesn't depend on it (the very definition of vital).
I will submit code to Kovid only the day that I find that Calibre lacks a feature that I really want, and today is not that day.

[EowynCarter]

for you only

Given the number of people complaining about this, I guess not.
Even some now happy with calibre said they had to adapt.

[Lo Zeno]

I also want to add one consideration:

Calibre uses the folders' structure as his database, which (probably, I'm not sure) is what allows two Calibre installation (for example in a dual-booting Windows/Linux PC) to share the same library. If you make a change (add a book, edit a title, change author...), it is reflected in the folders' and files' structure, so when you boot into the other OS and re-open Calibre you'll see the change "ported" to the other installation immediately.

If Calibre were to change the way it works, for example by using some sort of database interface to index and tag its files and to keep its metadata organized, it would (again, probably, since I haven't yet looked deep enough into its code) lose this nifty feature, because any change made to your ebooks, say, while using Calibre in Windows would cause data corruptions and disalignment once you open Calibre in Linux.

So, it would (probably) lose a feature that many like me love, to add a feature that a few others like you want.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

I also want to add one consideration:

Calibre uses the folders' structure as his database, which (probably, I'm not sure) is what allows two Calibre installation (for example in a dual-booting Windows/Linux PC) to share the same library. If you make a change (add a book, edit a title, change author...), it is reflected in the folders' and files' structure, so when you boot into the other OS and re-open Calibre you'll see the change "ported" to the other installation immediately.

If Calibre were to change the way it works, for example by using some sort of database interface to index and tag its files and to keep its metadata organized, it would (again, probably, since I haven't yet looked deep enough into its code) lose this nifty feature, because any change made to your ebooks, say, while using Calibre in Windows would cause data corruptions and disalignment once you open Calibre in Linux.

So, it would (probably) lose a feature that many like me love, to add a feature that a few others like you want.

I quite see your point. That's also why the first step is to figure out how to change things, in a way that will satisfy every one. And causing the less breakage.
It seams the simple way to get this working is user defined setting for library template. At install, just asks the user the template to use for the library, and use it.
Then you set the same template for both OS, and voilà.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Given the number of people complaining about this, I guess not.
Even some now happy with calibre said they had to adapt.

Then contact them via MP, work out a solution with them, submit it to Kovid. He won't reject it, he's happy when people submits new features that don't break how Calibre already works.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

Then contact them via MP, work out a solution with them, submit it to Kovid. He won't reject it, he's happy when people submits new features that don't break how Calibre already works.

Work out a solution with them ? Hey, what about the rest of calibre users ?
Kind of stupid to go code stuff, then have your code rejected because it breaks stuff other actually cares about.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I'm dual booting windows and linux. Installing calibre on the two OS, and on the same library will most likely conflict right ?

Well, I think that it might work. Give it a try.
I am dualbooting as well. Except I haven't booted into windows more than 5 times during the last two years. And since they screwed KDE I am not using FreeBSD as much as I used to. Nowadays I spend most of my time in Mint Linux.

I was resisting using of Calibre as my book cataloging tools for a long time. Directories worked well enough for me, until there were too many of them ;-) in various places, with various formats, with conflicting info.
But, since all other solutions were worse than Calibre I gave it a *serious* try.
OK. The Calibre GUI isn't exactly my cup of coffee. The GUI still isn't customizable and I can't make toolbar button for the functionality I want. But they made quite a lot of improvements lately.

With the introduction of Regular Expressions for many operations inside Calibre I just couldn't resist using it any more.

I still access folders with books occasionally. Just open right panel and click on "Click to open" and the folder/directory with the book will be opened to you.

When I select books I want to load into my reader or just "pull out" of the "Calibre Black Box Storage (TM)" I simply select the books, right click and select "save to disk". You can go wild with possibilities here. You can construct any directory structure you wish for book output. There are even *optional* directories, so if you have series info the books are put into series folder, if the series field is empty, the folder isn't created.
And with the new Metadata plugboards, combined with custom columns, combined with power of Regular Expressions the sky is the limit!