MTClient

I know I probably freak people out when I talk about titles that are in “competition” to my own software, but I’ve always been more about the technology than I am about pissing contest for a bigger marketshare of freeware. Having said that, there’s a new player in the MT-specific offline Blog writing arena: MTClient. I found out about this new one through Stupid Evil Bastard who has toyed with SharpMT before but wasn’t pleased about all aspects of it, before coming to find MTClient…

The only thing that pisses me off about finding SEB’s post is this presumed “not many people want to install the .NET Framework just for one application” bit that screams out to me, from the post. Maybe I’m just over sensitive to it, but it seems ot be pretty plain to me… and that just irks me beyond belief. Don’t download the .NET Framework on my account… wait until XP’s SP2 includes it, before you have to worry about it again. Get over this whole “I don’t wanna download it, boo hoo hoo” bullshit, once and for all. Hell, I’m tempted to include the Framework install now, as part of my install, because it’s just ridiculous. Wanna use the latest stuff? Get used to it having this silent and unseen Framework around. It’ll be everywhere. And you aren’t downloading the framework for just my application

– you’ll need it from most shareware and freeware applications in the years to come.

Obviously, the MTClient is a non-.NET Application, which may have earned bonus points with some people. Actually, it’s got a nifty spell checker: I’m extremely curious as to how he got that into the application, with what looks like “minimal” integration (as in no extra files in the install). I mean, with Spellican it was easy, but that had the support of an OCX (and two DLLs) and IDE integration… I wonder if his app is in Delphi, like FeedDemon, which would explain it. It also has a lot of the “now standard” features that people expect from offline clients, with a couple of added bonuses: integration with FeedDemon (which does not use IBlogExtension like most writers use, so I figure that comes in through a command line parameter or something) and multi-blog support.

Yes, you heard me: multi-blog support. Caught some of your eyes, did I? Good. So please, if you’ve harassed me about my decision to support only one Blog at a time, and it’s a must-have feature for you, check out what he’s go cooking over on his Blog at XREWare… I won’t be upset, honest – I’d rather you find a tool you can use and be happy and if my bits aren’t doing it for ya, I can still help ya out… (SharpMT isn’t getting multi-blog support in the near (or far) future, just FYI.)

And cheers to XREWare for helping pick up some slack for the lack of writing tools out there!


7 thoughts on “MTClient”

  1. “wait until XP’s SP2 includes it”

    XPSP2 RC1 doesn’t include the .Net Framework (unless you get the Service Pack CD, but even then you still have to install it seperately), and from the looks of it that won’t change before release. I regret it, a lot of people I know regret it, but it seems to be what’s going to happen.

  2. Ah, news to me… I had heard that was one of the new “enhancements” that would be included. I haven’t bothered to go for the RC – I’ll wait for RTM. Well RTWeb. :)

    They should include it. It’s silly not to – almost just as silly for people to be “upset” that they have to download a runtime… it was required for MFC (for the shared library setting) and required for Java applets. It doesn’t even HURT anything. What, is even 50MB going to suck up sooooo much space on your 40GB drives? Jeesh.

  3. First let me say that I think it’s cool you’re pointing folks to other blogging tools for them to consider. That shows you’re concerned that people are using something their happy with and that’s a pretty decent stance to take.

    Now allow me to correct a misperception on your part: I didn’t say anything about many people not wanting to install .NET for just one application. I did say that your tool uses .NET which a lot of people (including me) aren’t too happy with and what I meant by that was we’re not too happy with .NET.

    Looking back at it I can understand how you interpreted my entry, but my beef isn’t with your client tool. In fact, I’ve downloaded .NET in the past just so I could try your client out. My beef is with some aspects of .NET such as, for example, the fact that it adds a “user account” of some sort to my system the usage of which I’m not entirely positive about. I may be somewhat paranoid, but I don’t like the idea of user accounts being added without being told why or what they’re used for. Granted, I’ve not looked into it much, but it bugs me on principle and there are a lot of people I’ve heard from who feel the same.

    That said, I think SharpMT is a good reason to install .NET if you aren’t as paranoid as I tend to be about Microsoft. Your latest beta offers some pretty cool features and I’m thinking it may be time to revisit it and give it another good going over. I just wanted you to know that it’s not that I have to download something extra to use SharpMT that upsets me in and of itself, I’ve been willing to download extra stuff to use freeware and shareware apps in the past. It’s the nature of that “something extra” that worries me.

  4. Paranoia can be healthy :)

    And I didn’t take the .NET comment to be against my tool – I took it as a “why wouldn’t you install the framework”. That I used it for #MT is my own choice, to be sure, and if people don’t want to have the Framework, that’s their choice as well – my issue with it, so to speak, is why wouldn’t you?

    As for it adding a user account, I believe it only does that if you have IIS and want to use ASP.NET – Looking at my own user list, there’s an account for ASPNET, IUSR_MACHINENAME, IWAM_MACHINENAME, and a SQLDebugger – all of which came from VS.NET, IIS, or ASP… for a client machine, I don’t think it creates an account; if it does, it doesn’t show on the list.

    Otherwise, I can empathize with you – I spend a couple of weeks turning off services that I didn’t want running because I felt they shouldn’t be… why in the hell does Ghost need a service?

    Anyway, I had no beef with ya either way – thanks for letting me know about it too… as you can guess, I do look to get active feedback :)

  5. MTClient is a Delphi application, and the spell checker is the Addict Spell-checker library…very>/b> nice, and has a thesaurus that goes into the 2.0 version.

    And just so you know, SharpMT almost made me not write this program.

  6. Ah, so that’s how you’re able to work with FeedDemon, too? Or did Nick just pass you a command line argument? I was first curious about that (why Nick didn’t support the .NET interface for interaction) and then realized he was using Delphi…

    Good to know about the spell checker control too: I had to go outside the box for one (and people were kind enough to donate cash to get one) but I woulda been pissed if I missed a free one! I know that the framework in Avalon has a spell checker too, so I’ll be able to use that someday.

    And so you know, if you were out first, I probably wouldn’t have bothered writing SharpMT either – there was a hole to be filled when I started blogging and now there’s some great apps out there to help!

  7. Nick passes a command line. He creates a temporary file based on a template ({installdir}\data\BlogThis.dat).

    I’m not working with .NET yet either. I’ve been watching and dabbling since 1.0 of C# but for some reason I haven’t gotten my head wrapped around the organization of the libraries. I suppose it’s almost time to get serious about it, though…


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