Update for MT users: w.Bloggar has finally opted to start supporting the extra fields of MovableType with their 4.0 release… I didn’t notice if TypePad was specifically supported, but it should be, if MT3 is supported. Just an FYI for those of you that like the UI on w.Bloggar over SharpMT, since we’re all part of one big happy blogsphere – I refuse to trash talk for a bigger share of a market that doesn’t make money!
Honest! I’m still working on the port of SharpMT to the next release of the .NET Framework – seeing new blogging clients out there doesn’t stop me from writing code… lack of time stops me from writing code. And once Beta 2 comes out, I’ll have to re-check most of the code, since I’m currently using Beta 1… ideally though. I hope to get SharpMT to state where I could open up the source code for download, although I’m just toying with that idea… I’d have to clean up a bunch of stuff, too, which is boring, but if it helps to show off the new Framework… maybe… just maybe.
I’ll trash talk for you: w.bloggar probably has some nice features for people who really need something more like a full-fledged HTML editor for their blog, which is not me or any other blogger I know.
SharpMT, on the other hand, has one feature that none of the other blogging clients have: a tabbed interface. That is a big deal to a lot of us who tend to keep several posts open at a time. I can’t imagine how anyone puts up with the one-document-at-a-time mentality of all the other blog tools. And unlike Ecto for Windows or w.bloggar, you can get a nice big clean editing area w/ SharpMT. Also, the blog links feature is a very elegant system to both edit existing posts and linking to them. If you find some ways to call attention to the distinctive features of SharpMT, you will definitely increase market share. Whether you will ever make any money, I don’t know — Ecto and Blogjet are charging — but please don’t stop working on it.
Wow. That’s one of the classier and more unexpected things I’ve read in quite some time.
Oh I’ve gotten a few donations, to be sure – I wouldn’t have put in the spell checker if I had to foot that whole bill… and I like the notion of shareware, but I consider this whole thing a hobby. When ya charge for software, you had damn well better offer some service… and while I DO try to answer most questions and address feature requests, there’s no pressure to do so…
I still think that if Zempt had come out before SharpMT that I might not have even bothered to write it… oh, I’m thrilled that I did – it keeps my design skills up (work keeps my coding skills up) – and like I said, I plan to continue it… I just thought I’d offer an option. :)
And ironically enough, I hate tabbed browsing… HATE it. But when it comes to writing and coding (blog or VS) I tend to like it.
@Tom – thanks! Probably one of the best compliments that this blog has ever had… now I’ll have to piss off at least a dozen people with the next post to compensate ;)
Well, I went out and tried w.bloggar. And, yes, the lack of tabbed (post) interface drove me nuts (and I, for one, love tabbed browsing). And though its support for MT has improved since the last time I looked at it, it still doesn’t quite “get” it the way SharpMT does (e.g., the WYSIWYG preview does the line break translation — but doesn’t do the paragraph translation. Feh.).
Anyway, SharpMT continues to rock. Good work.
I’ve always said, the best compliment I could get for software was that each new version Sucked Less than the last release. Well, that and when I was making shareware and I heard that someone took the time to crack it – that’s a compliment in it’s own right – but it’s been years since that was an issue.