Kung-Log : new cocoa version — 18 Jan 2003

Kung-Log is a weblog editor for Mac OS X written in pure Cocoa by Adriaan Tijsseling who runs kung-foo.tv. I discovered Kung-Log when I started to get serious about webloging, and converted several personal sites to weblog format. The first version was written in AppleScript, and caught my attention immediately, by its crystal clear user interface, simplicity and the features it offered over other weblog editors.

Kung-Log is designed to work with MovableType, a very popular weblog solution. It so happened that a friend of mine pointed it out to me a few weeks earlier, and that I had decided to give it a try. A real try. Kung-Log did the job right out of the box. What more to ask? [ read on ]

Well, the new cocoa version sports a similar interface, but adds numerous new and revised features such as,

• configure multiple weblogs (personalities) on different servers
• retrieve a list of recent posts in a side drawer (cool)
• edit or delete older posts
• save drafts to file
• editable menu for html tag templates, complete with shortcuts
• post with extended entry and excerpt (cool)
• preview current post
• set multiple categories for posts
• choose to publish post or keep it as draft
• syntax-coloring
• KeyChain support
• customizable toolbar
• spellcheck plus find/replace
• insert your current iTunes track, complete with name, artist, etc. and Google search url

Unfortunately, a bug in Apple's WebServices may prevent certain functions from working properly if you write you weblogs in a language that uses extended characters such as accents, etc. (French, German, etc.). The retrieve recent posts may generate an error (or may not). Apparently, a workaround is to code your blog in HTML entities (I still have to try that out).

But don't let that detail turn you off. Kung-Log is a wonderful application, that is a life saver if you blog to MovableType. Moreover, this is the first beta publicly released, and its author is very talented and motivated. The futur is bright.

[ If you're into Mac, coding, blogging or reading, don't forget to read kung-foo.tv ]