[TxMt] Re: Actual Forum?

[Jacob Rus]

[Jacob Rus]
> Use Gmane if you want a forum-like web interface.  I recommend against 
> it though, as forum-like web interfaces suck.

[podperson]
> I agree. Forums don't suck. Forum-like web interfaces suck.

[Jacob Rus]
> Find me a forum with a desktop app as its interface, and we’ll talk.
> 
> Until then, you get a -1 from me on any forum proposal.

[podperson]
> How about Safari? It's as much a desktop app as Mail.

Why do I get the feeling you’re not really reading the responses you’re 
getting here?

I cannot read a web forum in either NNTP readers, nor desktop mail 
readers.  I can read this mailing list in my browser in about 4 
different ways, including some that look like most web forums but 
better.  I can also read it in any mail client, usenet client, or rss 
feed reader.  I can munge its plain text messages in a program written 
in any language I like.  I can trivially make the Bubbles voice read 
each message out loud on my laptop as it arrives, if I so desire.

[Jacob Rus]
> Given that, as 
> far as I know, most of those who work on TextMate bundles, including 
> Allan himself, feel somewhat the same way,

[podperson]
> How would you know?

Sorry, by “TextMate bundles”, I meant “those TextMate bundles which are 
in wide public use”.  I thought that was clear, but apparently not.

> I realize you think hacking bundles is some kind of elite
> thing, but I suspect anyone who uses TextMate hacks bundles. They probably
> don't sync their changes to svn because it's a PITA, and they don't talk
> here because it's a PITA.

You aren’t making any friends here by being patronizing.

(Or for added snark: I realize you think that using email is some kind 
of elite thing, but I suspect anyone who uses TextMate has also used email.)

I doubt you really want an answer to this, but actually I think no such 
thing.  I was “hacking bundles” within a couple of days of using 
TextMate, before I had much understanding of it at all, and had hopped 
on IRC and contributed a bit myself within the first week (ironically, 
the “bulletin board” bundle, for syntax highlighting the god-awful 
markup used by most web forums).

> Oddly enough, it's easier to extend and customize it than participate
> in the online community, which is kind of sad.

It’s surprisingly easy if your outlook is positive and cooperative, and 
your goal is solving practical problems.  If your communication style 
convinces everyone in the community that you’re just trolling, then that 
“ease” depends on your definition of “participate”, I guess.

> It would be really neat if you could set yourself up to treat the mailing
> list purely as a forum in a relatively straightforward manner

Feel free to write that software, or convince someone else to.  Mail 
messages are a very well understood format, trivially mappable to 
whatever kind of front-end you like.

Alternately, go complain at the Gmane people if you don’t like their 
implementation(s) (it has most of the advantages you cite for fora: 
searchable, always available from anywhere, see all the replies to a 
thread in one flat page, etc.).

<http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.editors.textmate.general/26173>

-Jacob