ComicAmi initial feedback

I've just installed ComicAmi.

Installation isn't as simple or foolproof as it could be, at least if you want to be able to simply double-click on CBZ or CBR files:
* def_cbz & def_cbr icons are provided, but no instructions (from a quick glance anyway) saying where they should be put (hint: EnvArc:Sys aka Sys:Prefs/Env-Archive/Sys).
* You ALSO need to go to Sys:Prefs/DefIcons and "Add" two new filetypes (named CBZ and CBR). For CBZ you should "Add...Pattern" and then type #?.cbz . For CBR you should do the same, but type #?.cbr .
* The "Default tool" of the icons is unhelpfully "comicami", which simply won't work at all. You need to change it to "AppDir:ComicAmi" (and then run ComicAmi once before this will work).
* Double-clicking on a CBZ or CBR file now starts ComicAmi... but it fails to load the file, printing the error SELECTED FILE LOCK FAILED to a Shell window.
* The problem is that the provided icons have "Start from" set to Workbench, when it needs to be changed to Shell. Make sure to then UNtick "Prompt for input".

* Dragging'n'Dropping files onto the window doesn't work either. (It's currently necessary to click on the "Open folder" icon, then drag your CBZ/CBR file to that.) It's not something I really expected to work on a first release (RunInUAE didn't initially support drag'n'drop either), but I only tried it becomes directly double-clicking files doesn't work...


In actual usage, it seems to work (from a quick try), but I did notice something rather undesirable:
* Every time I open a CBZ file, it unpacks the whole thing to a randomly-named directory in a hidden "tmpcomic" sub-folder. And leaves the files there forever, taking-up disk space.
* If you open the same CBZ twice, you get two folders with the same files. This is obviously unacceptable, as it will quickly fill-up your hard disk. (And really it should't leave any files behind at all.)
* I'd suggest unpacking to T: (which is usually in RAM Disk), which should be faster & won't permanently waste space... Although it should still delete the files when finished.

Another (smaller) annoyance:
* ComicAmi starts with it's window only taking about 50% the width & height of the screen.
* If you maximise this (Shift-click the relevant window gadget), then it becomes nice & big...
* ... But when you close & restart ComicAmi, it forgets the size you last used, so you have to resize it all over again. Not very desirable!

* If you move it to another public screen (nice that this works), it also forgets that when you close it.
* Actually this is slightly buggy - after closing the program, the public window still stays open. I assume ComicAmi fails to unlock the public screen (the window might be handled by a Reaction class(?), in which case the window class is probably not being destroyed correctly).

A *really small* cosmetic issue:
* If you iconise the program (by clicking the relevant window gadget), the icon is a generic "Shell" icon, rather than the program's own icon. (I recall that this was actually surprisingly complex to achieve, when I did it for RunInUAE, probably more complex than any of the other issues I've mentioned here, so best leave this little issue till last.)


Anyway, the basic function of reading CBZ files works, and seems it just needs some polishing (as the version number 0.53 suggests!).

@chrisH
Thank you very much on all your comments.

- About the setup of the default icons, this is something that I was going to add in the documentation on the 0.54 version which will come shortly. It is great that you provide here the whole necessary info. Thanks for that.

- You are totally right on the files that stay behind. I am adding a way to delete these files as soon as the user close the program, or open an other comic file. In the full version there will be a way to recognize the previously opened comics and keep it's data in a library. This way it will be totally possible to have you comic collection in a library and open whenever you want a comic.

- Drag 'n drop is in my TODO list (https://bitbucket.org/walkero/comicami/wiki/Home)

- Screen and window size will be saved in later versions.

More features will come soon. I really appreciate your feedback and your will to test my application.

@walkero Quote:
When opening large CBZ files, there was a noticable lag opening it on my X1000 (up to 3-4 seconds for 300 pages in one CBZ). I attribute this to unpacking the whole thing to my hard disk. IMHO it would be much faster to unpack to T: , perhaps as an option?

Another (more complex) alternative would be to unpack the pages AS NEEDED. i.e. Do a listing of the CBZ archive, and display that list, but only unpack them when you click on the page (to view it). Since this would have some small-ish speed impact, you'd probably want to automatically unpack the next & previous pages (ready for when the user clicks next/prev).

P.S. I saw no page thumbnails. I assume this is because I am using the "Free" version. (But TBH, I'm not sure I *want* thumbnails.)

@walkero

I added some optional install instructions for Jamiga's DefIcons; you're free to use that if you like.
If I remember correctly, it was an optional installer step, in which the DefIcons prefs program was started automatically with instructions in HTML format.

@ChrisH

> When opening large CBZ files, there was a noticable lag opening it on my X1000

Right now it uses the XAD system to unpack all the files. I am testing to use other solutions, like the libZIP. I believe that this solution will be much faster, and will give better file handling. But this is for much later releases.

> Another (more complex) alternative would be to unpack the pages AS NEEDED

This is unfortunately not possible with the way I unarchive the files now. Maybe the previous soultion will help. But I assume that will make the whole experience much havier for the users that have less powerfull computers.

> P.S. I saw no page thumbnails. I assume this is because I am using the "Free" version.

The thumbnails make the show up of the comic slower. I need to make it asynchronous, to gain speed. Also I want this to be an option for the user. I am afraid that it won't be available in the free version.


@joakim
Thank you very much for your proposal. I am going to check this out.

In the OS3Depot's upload page is the new version of Comicami v0.54-free.

The new features of v0.54-free:
- Added an icon when iconified
- Fixed a bug when Comicami moved to an other screen, if the user closed it in that screen, the screen didn't close.
- Now it works in older versions of AmigaOS 4.1 than Final Edition
- If the tooltype 'AUTODELETE' is set, Comicami deletes the previous opened comic temporary folder, to save hard disk space.

A guide on how to setup the default icons can be found at the following URL
https://bitbucket.org/walkero/comicami/wiki/Setup%20default%20icons

@walkero
From just a very quick check:

The provided DefIcons still don't work out of the box, because they they still have "Start from" set to "Workbench". You need to change it to "Shell", and then ensure "Prompt for input" is UNticked.

Thanks for AUTODELETE. Seems to work :)

HAPPENED ONLY ONCE SO FAR:
After moving ComicAmi to a different screen, and resizing it's window, I closed it... and got a Grim Reaper crash. Start of the crash log follows:
Quote:

@ChrisH
First of all I would like to thank you again for using my app and giving feedback.

> The provided DefIcons still don't work out of the box, because they they still have "Start from" set to "Workbench".

I also have them on my system set to "Workbench" and they ork just fine. What is the problem with your installation? The comic isn't loaded?

I will check the crash you had. Is it reproducable?

@walkero+ChrisH

Can you guys suggest any websites with free comics to download safely ? All I found with google either doesn't work in Odyssey or goes through all kinds of strange download web sites and net casinos.

@TSK

In spanish "http://e-comicbooks.blogspot.com.es"

English : I search torrents for " DC Week" "Marvel Week" "Image Week", but there's no torrent for amiga.

:(

@TSK
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7849#98367

@RIBDEVIL
me apunto esa web!!!! Gracias

@jabirulo

Uppss.
Se me ha colado el ""slash" despues del .es.

Ya he corregido el error.

:)

@TSK
Check the following link
https://archive.org/details/comics

@walkero

Good. Thanks.

:)

@walkero Quote:
As I mentioned in my first post, it fails to load the comic, printing the error SELECTED FILE LOCK FAILED to a Shell window.

Quote:
So far it has only happened once (in my very brief tests), but that might merely indicate the bug is due to an use-after-free bug (or uninitialised variable or similar). I was hoping the GR crash log would allow you to use addr2line to see where it crashed in your program & so make some educated guesses as to where the problem might be.