Steven recently brought to my attention that there is a "new" piece of blogging software out there called
ThinkJot. I use new in quotes because it's apparent from the web page that the author has taken the
DasBlog 1.8 source and then made several modifications of his own in order to make it more user-friendly. Some of these changes probably *are* pretty useful, like the DatePicker control (I'm confused too - why would a DatePicker control want full trust?), and I'm all for making the install of DasBlog a *lot* easier for an end user. However, I guess I have some concerns about his reasons for forking the source:
Lots of source code changes. It would be difficult to get it on to the dasBlog source tree without risking its stability.
Why not just make small changes gradually? Or even just ask the DasBlog dev team about it?
I wanted to provide a lighter version of dasBlog, removing all the features that nobody used. That includes the support for the other blogging APIs.
Considering that the blogging APIs are used in a lot of remote posting applications (BlogJet, w.Bloggar, and now Performancing), is it really safe to say no one is using this feature? To go even further with it, how does Jeswin know which features are being used and which aren't? I don't recall any call to the current DasBloggers to ask which features they didn't really use all that often.
.Net version 1.1 is not a concern. The application will target v2.0.
You're worried about having an easy install for users but you don't care about the users that only have 1.1. hosting? I'm not saying that this is common, but how is the "average" user you're targeting going to really know the difference here? Wouldn't it be better to have it compatible with both?
Speeeed! I have plans to add features or modifications, which may take time to be integrated to the main source tree since it might break a lot of other code. Planned features include multi-user support, and maybe an optional Sql Server backend. Maybe, support Asp.Net's new theme system.
There's already multi-user support. I built it. And again, if you're thinking about other backends, why not just work with the existing developers?
Right now, I don't consider dasBlog to be very shared-hosting friendly. Yes, it needs full-trust, while most ISPs will allow only medium trust. I think it is important to provide a version for people who don't own their boxes.
This is the only idea I like, but realistically then, you should be supporting both 1.1 and 2.0 for those people who want to install DasBlog but their server only has one version. Once again, not saying this is common, just good practice.
Saying that "in the long term, ThinkJot will move away from the original dasBlog source code", implies that all you've done is make some minor project ports, throw in a new DatePicker and call this your own project. For sure, it's probably legally fine given the terms of the open-source license, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. How would you feel if you worked on something for a long time and then someone just took all the work you did, rebranding it and called it their own? I mean, c'mon!
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