neurotwitch

Movable Type 3.01D: does six apart = the microsoft of the blog world?

A client needs a cgi-based blog-type setup since Earthlink is about ten years behind the times when it comes to supporting PHP. So, despite my reservations about the pricing structure imposed by Six Apart, if it solves the problem, it would be worth the money for the non-commercial license. But I needed to make sure the software works before I shell out the bucks. So, I downloaded the free version to give it whirl.

What a buggy piece of crap it is. Movable Type 3.01D is supposedly the bug-fix edition. I followed the instructions, carefully, twice. It's still a piece of crap software. Lazy, lazy, lazy documentation and the support forum is bullshit. The stylesheet for the application isn't even good -- it's pretty bad when I have to force a scroll in order to click the save button.

Here is an example error:
syntax error at extlib/DateTimePP.pm line 24, near "++ for " BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at extlib/DateTimePP.pm line 43. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at extlib/DateTime.pm line 44.
When I hit the "back" button, it just loops the error. If I try to close it, it closes the browser. When I try to figure out what this error means, I get nowhere -- there is nothing in the troubleshooting documentation and nothing I could find in the forum.

Not only that, there's this kind of crap littered all over the place:
Ambiguous use of sort => resolved to "sort" => at lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 1759. Ambiguous use of sort => resolved to "sort" => at lib/MT/Template/Context.pm line 1768
What the frell ... ?

There's no way I can ask my client to take a look at this in order to get an ok for buying the $100 version, which is what they'd need for their non-profit group.

It goes to show, Six Apart really doesn't give a damn about the standalone version of MT. Why would they allow such a junky application out the door? I don't have time to wait for them to get their crap together, so I'll just dust off my copy of 2.661 or whatever it was and use that until I can find some grownup software that actually works.

If, according to their own published specs, the webserver software meets the requirements, and if I follow the directions carefully, the software should work, right? Unless it's crap software. I have neither the time nor the knowledge to debug their code mistakes.

Sayonara Six Apart -- you just lost another customer.

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