Mad Props!

I just discovered your app and blog. I was researching APIs to build my own comic book management tool and found your app via your blog post about the ComicVine API. After installing this preview, it looks like my concept and ideas are already in development :) I was planning on using WPF, WCF, etc. using a plug-in type system, too.

I'm downloading the current version now to migrate some of my comics from another product and so I can finish with the rest of my inventorying.

I definitely think you're moving in the right direction with the new version. I'd love to build some plug-ins once the new version is into a beta phase.

Hi James,

Great to hear from you! I've been considering opening up the source for the next version on codeplex or something. What do you think? Might help motivate me if there are others looking on as I go and offering advice.

 Hi Mabster,

I just had a look at where you are headed and I like it.  Having plug-ins is a good idea if you are opening up the code for people to modify as they want/need, but is there any particular reason for making the new version a cut down version1 one with plug-ins?  Would it be easier to just have the current one in the new format, and keep the ability to add plug-ins?  For those that like the old, will there be the ability to have the new look like the old?  

Features I use the most are add multiple issues, and the ability to resize the cover scan depending on the skin.  A loans manager plug-in would be excellent as I could then use the database to also inventorise my DVDs!!

Thanks again for the excellent product

 

I think that the CodePlex, Google Code, GitHub, etc. for source code/project management is a good idea. They also have issue/bug trackers which will make handling things a bit easier to track.

I'm not an expert on WPF (nor WCF, but I've used WCF more frequently). Over the last several years, I've kind of went in the web forms (asp.net) and class libraries route. I used to do a bunch of win forms, but not so much anymore. Comicster's selling point to me was the plug-in model approach. It's much easier for me to crank out plug-ins for things I want to do or modify existing apps, then to write my own from scratch - which I had started on, but due to time constraints it would have taken me too long to finish.

I'd contribute some of my free time to help getting the base version up and running (testing, coding, or whatnot). I think it would be a good idea to spec out what the current version has (features-wise) and then try to finish getting the next version to the same feature-level (along with some of the extras like the ComicVine API, etc.). I'm a big believer in that newer versions (even re-writes like this) need to start off in at least the same feature-set as the previous version. After the new the version is stable, then I'd like to test out writing a few plug-ins for things that the app might need on top of the base set of features.

I'm looking forward to seeing comicster moving forward :)

Hey Matt,

I just found another recommendation (or maybe bug). Is it possible to have the creators names sorted in the "find online" panel the same way as shown on the issue information display in the next version? It's a bit difficult to compare the two lists of people when they aren't sorted the same way.

Also, just curious if you've thought any more about CodePlex, GitHub, Google code, etc.

[double post, ignore]

You're right - the "find online" dialogs in the new version don't seem to be sorting by anything. I'll have to fix that.

I am still thinking of creating a CodePlex project, but I've had a couple of busy weekends in a row so I haven't had a chance. Unfortunately this weekend will be no different. I'll make a post here or on my blog when I get around to it! :)

mabster:

You're right about the font rendering. I hear that Microsoft have finally addressed that in version 4 of the .NET Framework due out early next year. I think the 1.0 release of this new Comicster will probably coincide with that, so by then it should be nice and readable.

Excellent.

 

mabster:

Hi James,

Great to hear from you! I've been considering opening up the source for the next version on codeplex or something. What do you think? Might help motivate me if there are others looking on as I go and offering advice.

 Is there any progress on this? 

I've been wanting to contribute to something and have a CBR reader for myself.  I'd like to have a silverlight 4 version so I can use it on a Mac.  I've starting writing a native .NET Unrar library.  It works so far (can unrar some cbr files :) I want it to use the Packaging API.

Does Comicster have native Unrar support?

 

Aw, man, I've really let this slide. In my defense, things have been pretty hectic at this end! :)

With Christmas bearing down on us it probably won't be 'til the new year, and there's a bit of a learning curve for me with Codeplex - I've not used it before to manage a project.

To answer your question, Neep: No, Comicster doesn't have any support for Unrar. I'm pretty sure the format is not supported by the .NET framework in any way, so if you were to build some sort of plugin that required it, you'd have to ship rar support along with it.

Silverlight is a possibility ... particularly version 4 which seems to "catch up" with WPF in many ways. We'll see how we go!

 I know the .NET Framework doesn't support RAR so I'm making it :)

 Unrar is open source (but the algorithm to create RARs is not)  So we can at least use it to read cbr files natively.  That's my goal anyways.  I've gotten things to work but I have a lot of clean up to do.

 Anyways, I was happy to see there is a WPF viewer in the works for Comicster and that you were going to open the source.  I want to make a Silverlight 4 version that is full trust so I can use it on OS X.  It would probably be a subset of what Comicster can do.

Let me know if/when the codeplex site is up or I can see the source to the WPF version.  I'm going to be trying to make the Unrar code a complete library over christmas before actually trying to make a Silverlight viewer.

Neep,

You may want to check out the SharpZipLib library guys. They might have made something for RAR files like they did with the SharpZipLib port (from Java to .NET) several years ago. I was also thinking about making a CBR/CBZ reader but I haven't started yet (was waiting a bit to see more about the architecture and the code base). I'm looking forward to seeing your future comicster CBR plugin... :)

 

 

I don't believe the SharpZipLib does rar at all. I've setup a codeplex project for my unrar library: http://nunrar.codeplex.com/ I need to figure how it should integrate with other compression libraries. Right now, there are no "releases" but basic functionality does work with cbrs.