Just after the Beta 1 release of Whidbey (Visual Studio 2005) I decided that the time was Right to start a conversion. Sure, I could have just opened the existing 2003 project in using the new IDE, but I opted not to do this… basically, this would give me a chance to play with the new IDE and Framework in a project that I was very well acquainted with. It also gave me a chance to update some of the external controls with built-in Microsoft-coded controls, which usually makes for an easier install to manage. The question is, where’s SharpMT 3.0?
Short answer? At the bottom of an empty beer bottle. The more honest and detailed answer is that it’s at the bottom of a now empty beer mug. Just kidding! Sort of. I’ve just been doing things that are very non-computer-ish for a little while now. Bike riding, reading a bit, playing some Xbox, Blogging a bit more, and coding a lot at work. And I mean really coding a lot at work. And in VB, of all things.
All of this has diminished by drive to code at home. I know it might sound odd, but it’s not too outlandish a thought: if you made muffins for a living and were eating them during a regular work week, how many more could you eat in the off hours? Exactly – not many more. But I love muffins, um, I mean coding. I’m in a situation where my hobby is my job, so even if I didn’t earn a living while coding, I would still be doing it.
What about SharpMT? I’m still plugging away at it, really. Honest! I’m just moving the code at a slower speed than I expected. That and I’m still pretty pissed off that MT is sputtering and crapping out on me from time to time – that makes me sorta distracted. Like I should be putting my energies in getting a new Blog engine configured and online, rather than focusing on a client that might be obsolete for the “new” engine. Bah. At least I can still post new entries, and for me, that makes the glass half full. So hang in there – the project isn’t dead or dying… it’s just in a state of… I guess detox or rehab is the closest analogy I can make.
And now for a MasterCard Priceless Moment: some chick just walked by wearing a navy blue thong that rode up above her low cut jeans. w00t!
Glad to hear that SharpMT 3 is still on-track (or at least meandering around the track). The current version is a fine product, if not as fine as the chick passing by …
I’m a programmer/writer in the Windows Forms team who uses your app both at work and in my off-time. I’m currently writing docs for several key Whidbey features. Please let me know if you need any technical assistance with the port – I’d be happy to oblige.
Hiya Jay – thanks for the offer! So far, it’s been more of a timing issue – as in I have less free time than I’m used to – than it is a lack of docs or examples… a lot of it has been the task of getting rid of my now “under trendy” variable names and removing some of the classes that I don’t need anymore. Things like List and partial have been self explainitory (and easier to use than their 2003 counterparts)… Things like the required use of delegates for cross-thread UI stuff was an experience but once done, it sticks with ya :) If more stuff pops up, I’ll be pinging you!
Cool beans, Randy.
Also, just tried out the Amazon plug-in. Very nice. I’ll try and take my own stab at plugin development in the coming weeks. A question, though: How about adding a method to the plugin interface that will invoke a property page, so that the plugin can maintain its own configuration data? This would be VERY slick in VS 2005, as Windows Forms supports a new Application Settings system. The plugin can use the main application’s application settings to easily save config data to an XML file maintained behind the scenes.
Let’s talk. :)
I recently just downloaded your most current version of SharpMT, and I was getting ready to set it up, but I get an error. It says it cannot connect to my server, and yet I’ve done everything it has says for me to do. I did not install my MT .cgi files into a cgi-bin (because mt said you really didn’t need to) so maybe that is the problem? Do you have a fix for this yet?
Um, you won’t need a fix from me – this sounds like a configuration this. For any offline writer to work with your MT blog there has to be a mt-xmlrpc.cgi. Whether that’s in a /cgi-bin/ directory is of no concern to SharpMT – it just needs to know where to find it. It’s often in the same location as you mt.cgi file, so I would try that location in the configuration…
regarding the post above, i’m wondering if something screwy is going on with mt. i was getting the similar error (and used to use sharpmt just fine – no, my mt-xmlrpc.cgi file has neither moved nor changed permissions) and thought if perhaps i upgraded to mt 3.1 that it would clear up the problem. no such luck.
i’ve been searching on the mt boards in hopes someone has a similar problem, but can’t find anything. i know it’s not your fault, randy – i’m just letting you know that something weird is happening!
Finally ran across something I couldn’t do with SharpMT 2.5 that I need to do in MT 3 — post something with a status of “Future” (as opposed to “Publish” or “Draft”), as I get ready to go off on vacation. Just a thought. Still did all the drafting in SharpMT. :-)