After testing out MT, Blogger and WP, I tested out TP. Downloading the file is not a big deal, only a 160kb ZIP file. But the installation is a bit hard to start, since there’s not included “readme” file. They need a file which says that you have to open “textpattern/setup.php” to start the installation.

So, after I had installed the thing, I had some fun by playing with the several options of TextPattern. The functions are well organized. The system is not very hard to understand. I had some problem with the “clean” URI function, but I fixed, knowing a bit of Apache scripting. The template editing is quite simple to understand. You can edit whole “pages” and/or mini “forms”. All of that is working with specific tags.

But the feature I found the most interesting, is the so-much-easy design integration. In other words, integrate a blogging software to an existing layout, which was a pain to with WordPress. But in TextPattern, doing it is fun! Unlike in WordPress, it doesn’t have a very advanced “default” layout, which make it more easy to customize. E.g. I just included my ifiz style sheet to the TP main page, and it worked at 80%. I just changed some bits of XHTML and it worked at 100%.

Another cool thing is the Textile support. Textile, for those who don’t know it, is a kind of simple formatting language, like BBCode.

In fact, I have to say that TextPattern is the simpler blogging software I’ve ever tested. And, like for WordPress, if there was a “import Cutenews entries” function, I’d switch to it!

P.S. - If you have suggestion of blogging software you would like me to test, say it!