4 ms·

I don't think your filesystem can send ePubs to your Kindle, which is the main point of Calibre

sdfqasdghj 6y ago
EDIT: Look at my second edit... END EDIT Why not provide a stand alone binary copy2kindle (or sync2kindle) and let me use that? Instead we need to accept that in order to do a single task the tool needs to first re-organise the world. EDIT: That doesn't mean that one can't also create a tool that manages the library on top of the various binaries. In fact if one architects the app fairly reasonably it would be very little additional effort (or could be done by third parties). EDIT 2: WOW! Calibre has done exactly this... There is a whole range of ebook-* commands. (Thanks https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587793)
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Exactly this. I understand that some people like a whole book management suite. Particularly people who don't use much tech, so it's just their computer + their Kindle + their phone. But others need something task-oriented. I don't just mean whiny software devs like myself, but students, researchers and - in general - people juggling more devices and document types. Such a user needs a bullshit-free way to view an .epub by double-clicking on it straight in their Dropbox folder. A "send to Kindle" under a right-click menu. A "Kindle sync" that works by having it mount itself as removable storage, so that you can simply copy files over, the same way you put your music on your Android phone. (Hell, maybe even a dedicated app would be good - one that looks like an orthodox file manager[0], showing you your files on one side, Kindle on the other, and helpfully detecting when you upload the same file twice. But that app would be orthogonal to the concept of opening a book, and to the concept of managing a book library. And I'd still want the right-click context menu integration. Hell, Windows actually had a place for it since time immemorial - the "Send To" section of the context menu!) -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager#Orthodox_file_managers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager#Orthodox_file_man... - i.e. Norton Commander, Total Commander and friends.
- michaelmrose 6y ago
  calibre calls this standalone binary ebook-device I've never used it.
auggierose 6y ago
Not the main point of Calibre at all, most of my books are not nicely readable on a Kindle anyway.
Mediterraneo10 6y ago
You could however write a very short shell script that would do that for you. I read loads and loads of PDFs on my Kindle, and I’ve got a very simple script kindlecopy.sh that copies them to an appropriate (newly created if necessary) directory on the Kindle, based on the PDF metadata. That PDF metadata, too, can be edited with much lighter-weight tools than Calibre. Entrusting Calibre with doing all this work would mean much slower performance. I still use Calibre for copying the occasional EPUB/MOBI to the Kindle, but I could replace that, too, with a shell script. Calibre’s ebook-convert is a standalone program, you could script that without ever opening the Calibre library-management application.
pnutjam 6y ago
It also provides a great web viewer, organizes by author or series, has an (mostly good enough" search functionality, and a decent "random" suggestion option. It will go out and find the appropriate metadata and cover for almost any book.

EDIT: Look at my second edit... END EDIT Why not provide a stand alone binary copy2kindle (or sync2kindle) and let me use that? Instead we need to accept that in order to do a single task the tool needs to first re-organise the world. EDIT: That doesn't mean that one can't also create a tool that manages the library on top of the various binaries. In fact if one architects the app fairly reasonably it would be very little additional effort (or could be done by third parties). EDIT 2: WOW! Calibre has done exactly this... There is a whole range of ebook-* commands. (Thanks https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587793)

TeMPOraL 6y ago
Exactly this. I understand that some people like a whole book management suite. Particularly people who don't use much tech, so it's just their computer + their Kindle + their phone. But others need something task-oriented. I don't just mean whiny software devs like myself, but students, researchers and - in general - people juggling more devices and document types. Such a user needs a bullshit-free way to view an .epub by double-clicking on it straight in their Dropbox folder. A "send to Kindle" under a right-click menu. A "Kindle sync" that works by having it mount itself as removable storage, so that you can simply copy files over, the same way you put your music on your Android phone. (Hell, maybe even a dedicated app would be good - one that looks like an orthodox file manager[0], showing you your files on one side, Kindle on the other, and helpfully detecting when you upload the same file twice. But that app would be orthogonal to the concept of opening a book, and to the concept of managing a book library. And I'd still want the right-click context menu integration. Hell, Windows actually had a place for it since time immemorial - the "Send To" section of the context menu!) -- [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager#Orthodox_file_managers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_manager#Orthodox_file_man... - i.e. Norton Commander, Total Commander and friends.
michaelmrose 6y ago
calibre calls this standalone binary ebook-device I've never used it.

auggierose 6y ago

Not the main point of Calibre at all, most of my books are not nicely readable on a Kindle anyway.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago

You could however write a very short shell script that would do that for you. I read loads and loads of PDFs on my Kindle, and I’ve got a very simple script kindlecopy.sh that copies them to an appropriate (newly created if necessary) directory on the Kindle, based on the PDF metadata. That PDF metadata, too, can be edited with much lighter-weight tools than Calibre. Entrusting Calibre with doing all this work would mean much slower performance. I still use Calibre for copying the occasional EPUB/MOBI to the Kindle, but I could replace that, too, with a shell script. Calibre’s ebook-convert is a standalone program, you could script that without ever opening the Calibre library-management application.

pnutjam 6y ago

It also provides a great web viewer, organizes by author or series, has an (mostly good enough" search functionality, and a decent "random" suggestion option. It will go out and find the appropriate metadata and cover for almost any book.