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I’m not sure why people compare it to Calibre here. Calibre is an insanely full featured management, editing and metadata filling software for ebooks and not bu

by dewey 8y ago

I’m not sure why people compare it to Calibre here. Calibre is an insanely full featured management, editing and metadata filling software for ebooks and not build as a minimal reader. I guess the main use case is to send ebooks to your reader device from Calibre (Like a Kindle) and it’s doing that very well especially if you invest time in setting it up and using the right plugins for your use case. You also don’t use Photoshop for browsing your images, it’s possible but it’s not what it’s made for.

elizabeth_olu 8y ago
www.elizabethblog.com.ng
bayindirh 8y ago
My first reaction was also the same: "That's a nice reader, but I use Calibre, and can read my eBooks from it too". If I didn't have an eReader and didn't manage it with Calibre, I'd build and it use it happily. While Calibre has a full management, editing and authoring suite, it also has a nice internal reader with reading features. It's not like the Photoshop, but rather the ACDSee suite, which comes with a full fledged image browser and viewer.
- qwerty456127 8y ago
  Yet Calibre is full of quirks, seemingly lacks some reasonable features (like importing metadata from book files themselves) and stuck with Python 2. I wish there were alternatives...
  - bayindirh 8y ago
    When I add books to Calibre, it reads and lists all the metadata correctly. I never added metadata to a book manually if the book has it. Strange. I can't comment on the Python2.x dependencies though.
    - ascii_only 8y ago
      Calibre author have said that despite python2 eol he will not transition to python3 and that he is "perfectly capable of maintaining python2 himself"
      - bayindirh 8y ago
        However it seems that people are slowly migrating Calibre to Python 3. Also looks like any Python3 patch doesn't break the current Calibre build is welcome indeed.
        ascii_only 8y ago
        Yes. I should have been more clear. He is not against python3 but thinks that it is less work to maintain python2 than port calibre to newer version.
        qwerty456127 8y ago
        This sounds like Calibre codebase is a mess that needs to be refactored.
        darkpuma 8y ago
        To be honest the best part of Calibre, the `ebook-convert` tool, is already broken out from the rest of it. It's similar to pandoc though in my opinion often does a nicer job.
        PurpleRamen 8y ago
        Even the best codebase can't effortless be ported. Calibre seems to have something around 25 MB of python-code, several external plugins, some C-code and other languages. Transition of this would take quite some time. Additionally, there is the problem of compability. Configuration in Calibre is python-code, and on several corners the user can mod stuff. Any transition would need to make sure to not brake things to hard.
        8y ago
  - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
    ...and it needs a huge amount of dependencies. And RAM.
    - bayindirh 8y ago
      It's a convoluted piece of software, which does a lot of things, but with ~160MB of RAM usage, I wouldn't call it a heavyweight. Its RAM requirement is more than the capacity of my first hard drive, but it's not in the league of Chrome, Slack or Atom. There are many wasteful applications out there doing much much less with much more resources.
      - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
        You are cherry-picking memory hogs like "Chrome, Slack or Atom" as comparisons and ignoring bookworm and other more reasonable applications. Also, I had to drop Calibre due to the large number of Python 2 and imagemagik dependencies that have a maintenance cost when it comes to pulling updated packages & so on. Making Calibre modular would have helped greatly but the author never cared.
        bayindirh 8y ago
        > You are cherry-picking memory hogs like "Chrome, Slack or Atom"... Huge amount of RAM usage is subjective term. For me, Chrome, Slack and Atom are memory hogs. While I do not find the RAM usage of Calibre optimal, I think its RAM usage is reasonable with that feature set for me. Eclipse is also using ~1.1GB of RAM, but it's not a memory hog from my perspective, because I get what I give as productivity and features that I actually use and benefit. >... ignoring bookworm and other more reasonable applications. No, I'm not. Above, here [0], I said that Bookworm is a nice application, but my needs are different. Also, I compared Atom with another functionally-similar text application and said that similar applications (like BBEdit) use ~60MB, but Atom uses 660MB out of the box. Similarly, since Bookworm doesn't provide the features that I need, installing it would be moot, since it'll sit unused on my disk, actually wasting disk space from my point of view. However, this doesn't make Bookworm a bad application. If it provides the functionality one needs, then I'm happy for them. Also its user interface is elegant and minimal, this another plus for Bookworm. > Also, I had to drop Calibre due to the large number of Python 2 and imagemagik dependencies that have a maintenance cost when it comes to pulling updated packages & so on. I don't know your OS and setup, and can't comment on that. However, major distros are doing the required maintenance, so many people are just installing it on their systems. > Making Calibre modular would have helped greatly but the author never cared. I don't know internal architecture of Calibre, so I can't say anything about this issue. However modularity has its own set of benefits and problems. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19197443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19197443
  - calcifer 8y ago
    How does Calibre's use of Python 2 effect your use of the application?
jplayer01 8y ago
You can entirely ignore the main Calibre program. Associate epubs with the Calibre reader and it only opens that. You never need to interact with the management suite.
skillachie 8y ago
Agreed that Calibre is a full featured management app that does it's function well but it requires readers to then use multiple apps to maintain their eBook collection. Would be happy if you could take BookFusion for a spin. BookFusion allows you to easily upload and organize your eBooks while being able to read on iOS, Android and Desktop(via Web) https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/cloud-library https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/cloud-library There is also a Calibre plugin that will allow you to easily sync your Calibre eBook collection. https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre

by dewey 8y ago

elizabeth_olu 8y ago

www.elizabethblog.com.ng

bayindirh 8y ago

My first reaction was also the same: "That's a nice reader, but I use Calibre, and can read my eBooks from it too". If I didn't have an eReader and didn't manage it with Calibre, I'd build and it use it happily. While Calibre has a full management, editing and authoring suite, it also has a nice internal reader with reading features. It's not like the Photoshop, but rather the ACDSee suite, which comes with a full fledged image browser and viewer.

qwerty456127 8y ago
Yet Calibre is full of quirks, seemingly lacks some reasonable features (like importing metadata from book files themselves) and stuck with Python 2. I wish there were alternatives...
- bayindirh 8y ago
  When I add books to Calibre, it reads and lists all the metadata correctly. I never added metadata to a book manually if the book has it. Strange. I can't comment on the Python2.x dependencies though.
  - ascii_only 8y ago
    Calibre author have said that despite python2 eol he will not transition to python3 and that he is "perfectly capable of maintaining python2 himself"
    - bayindirh 8y ago
      However it seems that people are slowly migrating Calibre to Python 3. Also looks like any Python3 patch doesn't break the current Calibre build is welcome indeed.
      - ascii_only 8y ago
        Yes. I should have been more clear. He is not against python3 but thinks that it is less work to maintain python2 than port calibre to newer version.
        qwerty456127 8y ago
        This sounds like Calibre codebase is a mess that needs to be refactored.
        darkpuma 8y ago
        To be honest the best part of Calibre, the `ebook-convert` tool, is already broken out from the rest of it. It's similar to pandoc though in my opinion often does a nicer job.
        PurpleRamen 8y ago
        Even the best codebase can't effortless be ported. Calibre seems to have something around 25 MB of python-code, several external plugins, some C-code and other languages. Transition of this would take quite some time. Additionally, there is the problem of compability. Configuration in Calibre is python-code, and on several corners the user can mod stuff. Any transition would need to make sure to not brake things to hard.
        8y ago
- eeZah7Ux 8y ago
  ...and it needs a huge amount of dependencies. And RAM.
  - bayindirh 8y ago
    It's a convoluted piece of software, which does a lot of things, but with ~160MB of RAM usage, I wouldn't call it a heavyweight. Its RAM requirement is more than the capacity of my first hard drive, but it's not in the league of Chrome, Slack or Atom. There are many wasteful applications out there doing much much less with much more resources.
    - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
      You are cherry-picking memory hogs like "Chrome, Slack or Atom" as comparisons and ignoring bookworm and other more reasonable applications. Also, I had to drop Calibre due to the large number of Python 2 and imagemagik dependencies that have a maintenance cost when it comes to pulling updated packages & so on. Making Calibre modular would have helped greatly but the author never cared.
      - bayindirh 8y ago
        > You are cherry-picking memory hogs like "Chrome, Slack or Atom"... Huge amount of RAM usage is subjective term. For me, Chrome, Slack and Atom are memory hogs. While I do not find the RAM usage of Calibre optimal, I think its RAM usage is reasonable with that feature set for me. Eclipse is also using ~1.1GB of RAM, but it's not a memory hog from my perspective, because I get what I give as productivity and features that I actually use and benefit. >... ignoring bookworm and other more reasonable applications. No, I'm not. Above, here [0], I said that Bookworm is a nice application, but my needs are different. Also, I compared Atom with another functionally-similar text application and said that similar applications (like BBEdit) use ~60MB, but Atom uses 660MB out of the box. Similarly, since Bookworm doesn't provide the features that I need, installing it would be moot, since it'll sit unused on my disk, actually wasting disk space from my point of view. However, this doesn't make Bookworm a bad application. If it provides the functionality one needs, then I'm happy for them. Also its user interface is elegant and minimal, this another plus for Bookworm. > Also, I had to drop Calibre due to the large number of Python 2 and imagemagik dependencies that have a maintenance cost when it comes to pulling updated packages & so on. I don't know your OS and setup, and can't comment on that. However, major distros are doing the required maintenance, so many people are just installing it on their systems. > Making Calibre modular would have helped greatly but the author never cared. I don't know internal architecture of Calibre, so I can't say anything about this issue. However modularity has its own set of benefits and problems. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19197443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19197443
- calcifer 8y ago
  How does Calibre's use of Python 2 effect your use of the application?

jplayer01 8y ago

You can entirely ignore the main Calibre program. Associate epubs with the Calibre reader and it only opens that. You never need to interact with the management suite.

skillachie 8y ago

Agreed that Calibre is a full featured management app that does it's function well but it requires readers to then use multiple apps to maintain their eBook collection. Would be happy if you could take BookFusion for a spin. BookFusion allows you to easily upload and organize your eBooks while being able to read on iOS, Android and Desktop(via Web) https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/cloud-library https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/cloud-library There is also a Calibre plugin that will allow you to easily sync your Calibre eBook collection. https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre https://www.bookfusion.com/reading/calibre