Ranchero Software: MarsEdit 1.0

Ranchero Software (Brent Simmons) shipped MarsEdit 1.0 yesterday. I've been trying the betas for a while (writing lots of unfinished blog posts in addition to the ones that make it into the wild), and it's a far superior writing environment to the standard Movable Type textarea in a web-based form.

My favorite parts are: Live preview as you type, the ability to have custom templates so you can see what your post will really look like before you make it, compatibility with Trackback and MT Categories... oh, and the ability to write it up in BBEdit instead if you're in the mood. It's mighty nice. Recommended.

Semi-related: I agree with Brent that it's cool when programmers write about their experiences. A recent example is gus mueller writing about VoodooPad 2.0, which I haven't tried yet but am now more interested in because of his writeup.