Mark Pilgrim announced today that his URLs are now cruft free. And I agree, his URLs look nicer than they did before. However, I have a problem with calling these URLs cruft free. Because, while the actual URL itself maybe free of the aforementioned cruft, the system that implements these URLs (Movable Type) had to have extra cruft added to it. First of all, the archived post file name had to have extra logic built into it. This isn't really a problem, however, it intensifies the next issue. He also had to use MovableTypes EntryKeywords field to supply the name of the uncrufted URL. Additionally, he had to install a plugin because MovableType didn't support this operation by default. So now, he has an installed plugin, additional logic in the archive file naming convention (which takes additional time to prepare when rebuilding), AND the added cruft of using a field for an intended purpose.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not downing Mark for this at all. It's MovableType's issue… he's just doing the best that he can with it. And maybe I'm even more wrong. Maybe it's not possible to do what he wants to do without having cruft SOMEWHERE in the system, regardless of what publishing engine he uses. But I doubt it.
