So one week ago today we released the first Beta for Movable Type 4.0. It was very well received, and I must admit the more and more I use the new version the harder and harder I find it to use Movable Type 3.x. The difference between the two is that dramatic. If you are a Mac user the closest thing I can compare it to is the feeling you get when use Max OS 9 after having used OS X for a while.
There are simply so many improvements each and every day; and I am not just talking about bug fixes either. Being a "real beta" we are using this time to not just to ferret out bugs, but also to listen to our users in an ongoing effort to make Movable Type 4.0 the best blogging platform on the planet. Bar none.
For instance, one feature we didn't initially plan on implementing was a way to capture, display and handle template errors more gracefully. We all get them - it is inevitable: you mistype a template tag name, or forget a closing tag somewhere, or who-knows-what. So it wasn't long before we found the existing approach in handling template errors simply not elegant enough. So now, when you save a template that contains a syntax error, we display the error, the template tag generating the error, and the line number the error can be found on. Thus making template editing, and the process of debugging your templates easier than ever before.
This feature along with a slew of new ones, more refinements to the user interface, improvements to the installation experience, and lots, lots more can be found in tomorrow's release of Beta 2 of Movable Type 4.0. Drop by tomorrow to download the latest and greatest of Movable Type.
There are simply so many improvements each and every day; and I am not just talking about bug fixes either. Being a "real beta" we are using this time to not just to ferret out bugs, but also to listen to our users in an ongoing effort to make Movable Type 4.0 the best blogging platform on the planet. Bar none.
For instance, one feature we didn't initially plan on implementing was a way to capture, display and handle template errors more gracefully. We all get them - it is inevitable: you mistype a template tag name, or forget a closing tag somewhere, or who-knows-what. So it wasn't long before we found the existing approach in handling template errors simply not elegant enough. So now, when you save a template that contains a syntax error, we display the error, the template tag generating the error, and the line number the error can be found on. Thus making template editing, and the process of debugging your templates easier than ever before.
This feature along with a slew of new ones, more refinements to the user interface, improvements to the installation experience, and lots, lots more can be found in tomorrow's release of Beta 2 of Movable Type 4.0. Drop by tomorrow to download the latest and greatest of Movable Type.
Arvind Satyanarayan
June 12, 2007 1:17 AM | Reply
This is a fantastic feature, it will prove to be very useful indeed :) Great work team (though a feature request, those line numbers in the error messages would be even more useful if the textarea had line numbers down the side ;)
Mark Carey
June 12, 2007 6:39 AM | Reply
Wow, I like this one a lot. This will be a real time saver when tweaking templates. One of those features you didn't realize you needed until you see it.
Ian Fenn
June 12, 2007 6:42 PM | Reply
This is really neat. Well done.