Renoberator, a Comics Editor & Storyboarding Tool
verson 1.00
Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Release Notes

There are two download distributions, one for Mac OS X, and one for generic Java clients. The plain Java distribution has been tested successfully on Windows XP and SuSE Linux.

It should also work on other varieties of Windows and UNIX that have a version 1.3 or better Java Virtual Machine installed.

Java virtual machines can be downloaded from Sun's website. To run the generic Java client distro, unzip and double-click on the file with the jar extension.

enjoy,
Dave Horlick <dhorlick-AT-comcast.net>

Frequently Asked Questions!

1. What is Renoberator?

Renoberator is a desktop application that can help you compose and edit comics storyline and dialogue. It can also generate book-style lookup indexes.

Renoberator uses ComicsML to keep track of the comics you compose with it.

2. What is ComicsML?

ComicsML is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) for representing comics electronically in a format-independent manner.

3. What are the advantages of representing a comic in ComicsML?

ComicsML allows people and computer programs to share comics. They could be syndicated to web sites and periodicals, or even sent directly to readers over a web service, possibly in exchange for micropayments.

For a discussion of micropayments in comics, see page 184 of Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics, and his follow-up on page 192 of the December 2001 Wired.

ComicsML could also serve as material for search engines, or assistive technologies for the visually-impaired.

See Slashdot archives for a spirited discussion of ComicsML.

4. How can I use Renoberator to generate a web site for my comic strip?

My favorite way involves Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). There's an example of this at the Renoberator web site.

5. Can I see a version history?

Sure.

6. I've noticed that stuff I copy from Renoberator shows up as ComicsML on my clipboard. Could I edit this in, say, a text editor, and paste it back in?

Yes, if you want to. Just make sure that the end product is well-formed XML. There are many tools for performing this validation, including the Mozilla and Internet Explorer web browsers. My favorite is the command-line based dom.DOMCount packaged with Apache Xerces.

8. How much does Renoberator cost?

Nothing. Everyone is free to use it under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License.

9. Can I get the source code for Renoberator?

Yes. Source code will be made available at the Renoberator web site.

I reserve the right to incorporate portions of the Renoberator source base for which I own the copyright into non-free software in the future.