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Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

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Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#41

Post by generic92034 »

spython wrote: post #26

Looks great! Just last week I tried to use Calibre again and fell into the black hole that is its UI.. Thought of donating some UI/UX work but felt like that would be a multi-year project. Perhaps I could support you with UI/UX instead?

Just to offer a different opinion: I never had any issues with the Calibre UI and usually get stuff done quickly and efficiently in it.

Honest question: Are there any examples of native smartphone apps which are offering such a functional wealth as Calibre does in a much better/easier way?

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#42

Post by Cockbrand »

phildenhoff wrote: post #3

As an aside, some folks may ask "why write a new app instead of contributing to Calibre Web or a similar project?" It's a good question! Because I wanted to :) Right now, this is a hobby project — I'm more interested in having fun building (rough!!) software than worried about extending existing projects. Plus, with how Citadel is designed to be backwards compatible with Calibre, you can continue to use Calibre Web.…

> Right now, this is a hobby project

Gives me a bit of early Linus Thorvalds vibes: "just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu" [0] - that said, I wish you all the best for the project :)

[0] https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~awb/linux.history.html

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#43

Post by Cockbrand »

asimpletune wrote: post #11

Sometimes I feel that if Calibre just looked better people would realize how amazing it is. It’s honestly not that bad (I actually love it) but I think people can’t get past the aesthetic.

I assume you mean not just the aesthetics, but the entire UI/UX, and I agree. Calibre is a very powerful and capable app, hindered by its unintuitive and clunky UI.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#44

Post by mmsimanga »

spython wrote: post #26

Looks great! Just last week I tried to use Calibre again and fell into the black hole that is its UI.. Thought of donating some UI/UX work but felt like that would be a multi-year project. Perhaps I could support you with UI/UX instead?

I don't use Calibre long enough to be bothered by the UI. I use it for at most 10 minutes every few months. Import Epub, update metadata and send to device. Spend a couple of months reading the books then repeat import process again.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#45

Post by asimpletune »

Cockbrand wrote: post #43
asimpletune wrote: post #11

Sometimes I feel that if Calibre just looked better people would realize how amazing it is. It’s honestly not that bad (I actually love it) but I think people can’t get past the aesthetic.

I assume you mean not just the aesthetics, but the entire UI/UX, and I agree. Calibre is a very powerful and capable app, hindered by its unintuitive and clunky UI.

The UI is actually fine to me. I say that as someone who uses it a lot though. What specifically do you not like about it?

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#48

Post by forty »

quic5 wrote: post #38
berkes wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Made me wonder what's going on there.

From the README > Yes, that is 4 pairs of --s. This is because Bun will pass the first pair to another bun run command, the second will go to tauri dev, the third will go to vite dev, and finally the last set will go to Cargo when running the backend. It's a mess!

pnpm realized how bad UX those -- when launching scripts were, and reorganized their arguments so that they are not needed anymore.

Re: Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app

#50

Post by konart »

asimpletune wrote: post #11

Sometimes I feel that if Calibre just looked better people would realize how amazing it is. It’s honestly not that bad (I actually love it) but I think people can’t get past the aesthetic.

Nah, it is bad. It's ok if you are using it to maintain something like a public library and want control over every little detail. But if you just want to store your personal lib - it's just too much of "how do I do X" every time.

And why would anyone force themselves with its "aesthetic" when you can spin up calibre-web container and get a nice UI and an OPDS in a few seconds?

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