I watch anime on my free time and I am often too lazy to log in to MyAnimeList and go through the hoops just to update what episode I’m watching. Like with Twitter, I want to instantly update my stuff through a client without needing to open up the web browser and log into MAL just to do that. There is actually a program like this called “MAL Updater”, but only for Windows…. That means that users that uses Mac OS X or Linux are SOL, unless you run it in Virtual Machine, but why would you want to do that since it takes resources just to run Windows….
Sure there are command line clients for Mac OS X and Linux, but they are no means user friendly for inexperienced users nor they are easy to use or feature rich as the Windows version. I’m complaining because why should users be shut into a Microsoft monopoly when the purpose of using Mac OS X and Linux is to get away from the Microsoft monopoly… but there is a alternative to all this MAL Updater madness… Melative (a combination of media and Twitter)… I have been using it for a few months now thanks to one blogger that does the same purpose and I have been helping with the development of melativemicro, a client that works on Macs, Windows and Linux. Besides, I don’t even use the social aspect of MAL anyways…
If Melative can have a cross platform client, how come MAL Updater can’t have a crossplatform client that have the same features to work on Macs and Linux instead of being stuck with command line crap that is hard to use and control and the Windows version only be locked into Microsoft? There are cross platform tools like Qt4, Mono, Realbasic, etc out there, so there is absolutely no excuse to make a client with the same feature set for all the OS. Until they make a full featured MAL Updater for Mac, I’m sticking mostly to Melative until that happens.
Update: In response to no MAL Updater on Mac, I decided to take the blue pill and build my own MAL Client for Mac OS X. If you want to track my progress or help out, join the club.
Well, I think it has to do with the userbase (demand). In any case, I’ve glanced the MAL api, and it’s alright, but in terms of capability Melative wins (the entire thing is API generated). I’m surprised there isn’t a client for OSX though, really.
Also, you’ve probably caught wind of Gargron’s Melative updater. I know he’s put some time into it, but in comparison, it was a very short matter of time to get a working solution. MALUpdater has been around quite a while, and I think it’s written in C# (fairly portable, but I could be wrong).
Robust APIs make it easier for anyone to code interfacing clients. In 30-60 minutes, I coded a python module for both MPD and Quod Libet which allowed [text] scrobbling on Melative. API may be large (http://melative.pbworks.com/Library just the Library), but using it is as easy as HTML forms.
Who knows. Long live open, dynamic datas.
I know that .net programs can be ported to Mono, but I don’t know why there isn’t a full featured Mac OS X client if the API is there… I would make one myself, but I have no knowledge in Cocoa programing nor I know that much BASIC in order to make a client that would work.
MAL is like Facebook. Move on, Twitter/melative is coming.
.-= Seinime´s last blog ..Kobato 2: Bite-sized Happiness =-.
I guess you are right… I never really sign on Facebook that much or sign in for months on end… The only purpose for MAL is just to keep track what I am watching.
Mal Updater is made with win32 Delphi, not C#, it’s a native win32 application so portability is very limited.
As I recall, Delphi is basically a dialect of the Pascal Programing Language and Free Pascal that can build on multiple platforms is compatible with that code, so If you decide to make a version on other platforms, you should be able to do it with Free Pascal with minimal code modifications.
If you ever decide to go that route, here is a guide to convert your code over to Free Pascal/Lazarus
http://wiki.freepascal.org/Code_Conversion_Guide
Not to mention, Free Pascal has support to compile in Windows 64 bit, which Delphi doesn’t have atm.