TrackBack Threading

We are releasing the TrackBack threading tool, which displays a tree display of an entire TrackBack-enabled discussion. Rather than showing just a flat, one-level list of related entries (as in the TrackBack popup window), this shows the entire thread. You can download it from here.

Installation instructions are in the README inside the archive.

Here is sample output of the threading tool for the thread that begins with this entry.

The tool is released under the Artistic License. The tool should be fun to play around with in itself, but our hope is that it could be used as the basis for other TrackBack-related tools. Possible performance enhancements could be had by writing the HTTP requests to run in a parallel fashion.

We also have plans on releasing more in-depth TrackBack documentation (about the system itself and how it can be implemented), along with a standalone version of TrackBack that does not rely on Movable Type. These will be released soon--we have a few more changes to make to them.