Chris J. Karr, June 21st, 2008

I’ve been a bit sparse on this blog lately, so I wanted to drop a note about some of my recent thoughts concerning the next version of Books. In each major iteration of Books, I try to take what I’ve learned and apply it in a new and creative ways in order to build better apps. Books 3 came out a few months after the Tiger release, and it’s well over two years old at this point. Quite a lot has happened since then and I want Books 4 to reflect that. That said, here are a few of my initial thoughts:

1. My major new focus in Books 4 will no longer be cataloging, but content. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that much of our book content is moving online as audio books, e-books, DVDs packed with PDFs, electronic files from places like Project Gutenburg, and so on. I’m not planning on abandoning cataloging in Books 4, but I really want to find ways to make digital book content more useful.

2. Books 3 uses a single database for cataloging metadata. This works well in that it makes things quick and easy to search, but it sidelines content (such as cover images) into cover image folders and the like. In Leopard, Apple finally made Spotlight quick and usable, so I’ll be doing away with the master database design to book bundles that contain metadata, cover images, digital versions, and so on. If you want to share your electronic books with someone else, it will be as simple as mailing a book file or copying it to a thumb drive.

While this may seem like a step backward, moving to a book-per-file scheme allows me to take advantage of a lot of native functionality, including:

• Cross-network searching and sharing
• Better system Spotlight integration
• Native Cover Flow & Quick Look support within Finder
• More robust and flexible digital file support

3. Instead of there being one single Books application, Books will become a suite of related applications. Books Catalog will be the next version of the current cataloging application. Books Editor will be a simple editor for editing and adding content to book files. Books Device Manager will be an application for managing content on electronic book readers such as the Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, iPhone, etc.

The current Quickfill functionality will become part of the Books Editor application, while the import and exporting will be included in the cataloging application. The device manager will handle converting content for particular devices.

4. Splitting things up in this manner will allow me to better manage the development process by splitting code modules into smaller, more maintainable chunks. Consequently, I’ll be able to improve on different parts of the system as quickly as needed without worrying about the whole system.

5. Personally, I’m beginning to think that the dominant cataloging metaphor employed in systems like the *Pedias, Delicious Library, and similar apps has reached its useful limits. I’m amazed at how well the catalogs work, but now that we have that problem solved, I’m interested in moving onto the next one – how do we make the Mac a compelling reading platform?

Anyways, that’s what’s going on in my head at the moment. I’m currently working on defining what a book file is and how it works within the system. (This work includes building the Books Editor application.) Once that’s complete, I’ll begin defining the Spotlight, QuickLook, and Cover Flow plugins. Once that’s finished, I’ll begin rebuilding the cataloging application.

I expect that this process will take several months, but I’m looking forward to posting my progress and getting feedback from the Books community. I’m also planning on maintaining Books 3 until we get to a point where Books 4 is stable, so keep the Books 3 feedback coming.