that's very good point, Phil. I've been reluctant to say anything on this, but maybe another voice will take a step closer to an action.
Recently Prototype lost one of its largest "clients" -- Magento. Starting with v2.0 Magento will be using jQuery. This is a big blow to the framework, imo (I've been doing steady Magento work for the past 2.5 years) and nearly every single frontend person I have worked with has made jQuery into working in Magento to get the animation effects that they want, etc. It seems that everyone wants something more from this framework -- forking is *always* an option -- look at Kohana -- started as a fork of Code Igniter because CI didn't have things some people wanted. Now look at FuelPHP -- a fresh new php5.3 based framework based on CI, Kohana with a dash of RoR thrown in. If there are people with the knowledge and the desire and the experience to say fork-it and go, I say more power to you -- just make sure you map it out and plan strategically, and where ever possible make it somewhat backwards compatible. Also, if you could get away from that whole $ magic function (say put it inside a wrapper?) -- that would make a LOT of frontend devs happy and dump a lot of confusion and headaches for some people. Of course just 2 cents from someone who really sucks at JS and is beyond inactive in the community, so feel free to ignore me. On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 7:23 PM, Phil Petree <phil.pet...@gmail.com> wrote: > I believe this is the 3rd time this subject has been brought up in the past > year and, to my knowledge, devs have made no comment nor provided any > direction so, as they say, no answer is an answer! > > > On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 1:20 PM, shellster <shellsterd...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Well written. >> >> As an opensource developer (aside from my day job), I am aware of the >> danger of caring too much about what the user thinks. >> I am also aware of the potential dangers of forking a project. >> >> What I want is some sort of answer from the Prototype devs on how they >> want the community to pitch in. Do they want us to develop our own >> plugin websites, or do they want us to create an interface for their >> main site? Do they want to develop it? Do they want us to develop a >> comprehensive library as an extension of Prototype or as part of >> Prototype? Will they ever official endorse such efforts (assuming >> certain obvious caveats)? Unfortunately, it seems that the devs don't >> care to provide any feedback on any of these issues. I am not >> expecting anything more from the devs, but as a matter of courtesy I >> would like them to explain how they would like us to get involved >> instead of users just doing their own thing. >> >> Also, the answer of "submit a patch for consideration" doesn't really >> cut it in this case, because I've personally seen patches never get >> acknowledged, let alone get added. I've yet to see a patch get >> added. Users aren't going to waste their time writing and cleaning up >> code, if there's not at least a good chance of their patch being >> considered. >> >> In short PrototypeJS needs to address these questions before the >> project either falls into disuse or the users take matters into their >> own hands and strike out willy-nilly and fully fork the project. >> >> >> >> On Aug 17, 8:04 am, Phil Petree <phil.pet...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > This is the same old discussion that's been going on for months and I >> wonder >> > if it will ever get resolved to the satisfaction of those of us who use >> the >> > tool to enhance our sites. >> > >> > From what I can tell, there seems to be an uber-geek philosophy of "make >> it >> > better and they will come" and, to a degree that's correct. The problem >> is, >> > history is filled with technically superior products that ultimately >> failed >> > because of poor marketing and/or not listening to their users (betamax >> vs >> > vhs and myspace vs facebook for two glowing examples). >> > >> > My fear is that prototype will ultimately face the same fate... be a >> > technically superior product with a few guys pitching in and carrying >> the >> > weight (anyone who follows this feed knows who the guys are who always >> pitch >> > in with an answer) while marketing, support, easy access to developed >> libs >> > and all the other goodies go ignored which causes adoption of the >> product to >> > dwindle because these things exist on another platform. >> > >> > Why is this important? I have a buddy that has a very successful site >> > written in cold fusion, he developed the site just to familiarize >> himself >> > with the language. Turns out, the site took off, he quit is day job, >> ran >> > the site, and recently got a contract for heaps and tons of $$$ for the >> > site. The catch? He has to rewrite the site in either .php or .net >> because >> > the buyer won't take it as a CF site. >> > >> > Does anyone want to end up with a site that, when its time to sell, will >> be >> > told, "that's all great but we're a jquery shop so you have to get rid >> of >> > prototype... nobody uses that anymore!" >> > >> > From a product standpoint, I'm sure the developers have their hands full >> and >> > they do a really great job delivering a product that, for the most >> > part, takes us away from browser level coding in a reliable and >> consistent >> > manner. Personally, I am extremely appreciative of their efforts and I >> hope >> > they keep up the good work! >> > >> > We all know what the but is... But I do think they need to set some >> > community direction and allow the product to grow. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 8:11 AM, shellster <shellsterd...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> > > I'm seriously considering building my own site to start adding things >> > > like community documentation, additions to prototype, and plug-ins. >> > > While the Prototype Dev's certainly don't owe me anything, I've been >> > > pretty disappointed in there response time to user requests and even >> > > submitted patches. I think if someone were to essentially "fork" the >> > > project (me), but still give prototype all the credit it deserves, it >> > > might be the best thing for the community. If I could generate enough >> > > community buzz, and add a bunch of well written features to prototype, >> > > perhaps then, the devs would start pulling some of the changes back >> > > into prototype's core. >> > >> > > On Aug 13, 4:43 pm, Cantrelle Vincent <vcantre...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > > > Hi all, >> > >> > > > I'm happy to see that the topic is not dead and that some ideas are >> > > > coming out ... >> > > > (too much work sometimes) >> > >> > > > @Sander: maybe I'm missing something (sorry in this case), but do >> you >> > > > have finally any answer (from Prototype's side) concerning your >> email >> > > > your decribed on th 20 Jul ? >> > >> > > > Regards >> > > > Vinc. >> > >> > > -- >> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups >> > > "Prototype & script.aculo.us" group. >> > > To post to this group, send email to >> > > prototype-scriptaculous@googlegroups.com. >> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > > prototype-scriptaculous+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> > > For more options, visit this group at >> > >http://groups.google.com/group/prototype-scriptaculous?hl=en. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Prototype & script.aculo.us" group. >> To post to this group, send email to >> prototype-scriptaculous@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> prototype-scriptaculous+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/prototype-scriptaculous?hl=en. >> >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Prototype & script.aculo.us" group. > To post to this group, send email to > prototype-scriptaculous@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > prototype-scriptaculous+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/prototype-scriptaculous?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Prototype & script.aculo.us" group. 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