What happens with MooTools
- Transfer
Below is a translation of today's post by one of the MooTools developers on google groups.
I write this post on the mailing list to tell the MooTools community what the developers did these days and what will happen to the framework. We are all tired of answering the same questions over and over again, so I hope this post makes something clearer and we stop seeing the same thing again and again on the mailing list.
Many of you think that we abandoned the old MooTools site in exchange for a simple boring option. The reason we updated the site to a new, simple one, with no effects at all, is because we want people to understand what MooTools is before they try to use it. We like the new site, and this is exactly what we want to see. The old site did not convey the correct picture of the framework. MooTools has never been a script that you can paste along with the code of some example to get a crazy effect on the site, even if you don't know anything about JavaScript. This is a framework for javascript developers. If it sounds elitist, well, let it be, but understand this is not our goal.
We also understand that no matter what we tell everyone, we cannot force someone to learn something, and many people will use the tools that we develop incorrectly ... this is normal, because they are open source.
We like mailing lists much more, as this is what developers all over the world use, and we can watch them at your leisure with email clients. Please stop asking us to return the forum back, or you can switch to another framework that provides its users with an official forum ... (note that all other frameworks, including jQuery, use mailing lists. None have an official forum and not a single user asks for this.
In addition, there is Nabble, a forum interface to mailing lists. If you have never tried, see n2.nabble.com/MooTools-Users-f660466.html
Also guys from mooforum.netdid a great job, so sign up there and use mailing lists instead if you want.
Turning to the developers and moderators of mooforum.net, if you need anything or if you think that there is an important post that developers should look at, let me know using email and I will answer. Thank you for all the hard work you have done.
Valerio and I spent this week starting with Fronteers 2008 (more on that later), working on the new MooTools blog. Mephisto caused us a lot of problems and cannot be styled in accordance with the rest of the site, so we decided to remove it. This was not an easy task, but as soon as it is done (at the end of this week) I personally and other developers will write regularly useful information. Check mootools.net for updates at the end of the week.
Last week, I spoke at a conference in Amsterdam called Fronteers that focused on object-oriented design in JavaScript and how we use some principles in MooTools. Valerio attended the conference with me and, since we were there, we talked a lot about MooTools.
I and other speakers / developers at the Fronteers conference talked to each other, we are all on the same team! We love other frameworks, and we love the contribution they make to the JavaScript community, and we want all of you to love them too. We do not compete with any of them. If you think jQuery is better for your current project, use it! This is a well-proven and refined framework. I also want an end to the wars between the frameworks. If developers normally communicate with each other, then users should do this. Let's not scold other frameworks anymore, okay?
We are working on release 1.2.1, which will be very soon. The biggest problem that needs to be addressed is in Class.js, but anyone who has looked at the code understands that this is not a trivial task. I am working on rewriting Class.js so that it works again with Safari2 and Opera, without dirty hacks. I will say when we are done and everything will be tested. 1.2.1 will also contain many other bug fixes. There is one problem with Request, which may require a small API change. If this happens, I will talk about this small change when there will be a release.
After 1.2.1, we will start developing MooTools 1.3. If we decide that there should be other changes that should be in the releases, you can release one or two interim releases, but we will solve this during the development process. 1.3 will contain several new things that we have not yet decided on. I will make a few posts about this on the blog when it's all over.
I think this small amount of official information is enough to make it clear what is happening and what will happen with MooTools. If there are other questions that I have not raised, you can ask them.
Thanks,
- Tom Occhino
PS: sorry, I can’t count :)
I write this post on the mailing list to tell the MooTools community what the developers did these days and what will happen to the framework. We are all tired of answering the same questions over and over again, so I hope this post makes something clearer and we stop seeing the same thing again and again on the mailing list.
1. What is happening with the site?
Many of you think that we abandoned the old MooTools site in exchange for a simple boring option. The reason we updated the site to a new, simple one, with no effects at all, is because we want people to understand what MooTools is before they try to use it. We like the new site, and this is exactly what we want to see. The old site did not convey the correct picture of the framework. MooTools has never been a script that you can paste along with the code of some example to get a crazy effect on the site, even if you don't know anything about JavaScript. This is a framework for javascript developers. If it sounds elitist, well, let it be, but understand this is not our goal.
We also understand that no matter what we tell everyone, we cannot force someone to learn something, and many people will use the tools that we develop incorrectly ... this is normal, because they are open source.
3. What happened to the forum?
We like mailing lists much more, as this is what developers all over the world use, and we can watch them at your leisure with email clients. Please stop asking us to return the forum back, or you can switch to another framework that provides its users with an official forum ... (note that all other frameworks, including jQuery, use mailing lists. None have an official forum and not a single user asks for this.
In addition, there is Nabble, a forum interface to mailing lists. If you have never tried, see n2.nabble.com/MooTools-Users-f660466.html
Also guys from mooforum.netdid a great job, so sign up there and use mailing lists instead if you want.
Turning to the developers and moderators of mooforum.net, if you need anything or if you think that there is an important post that developers should look at, let me know using email and I will answer. Thank you for all the hard work you have done.
2. What happened to the blog?
Valerio and I spent this week starting with Fronteers 2008 (more on that later), working on the new MooTools blog. Mephisto caused us a lot of problems and cannot be styled in accordance with the rest of the site, so we decided to remove it. This was not an easy task, but as soon as it is done (at the end of this week) I personally and other developers will write regularly useful information. Check mootools.net for updates at the end of the week.
3. What else is Fronteers?
Last week, I spoke at a conference in Amsterdam called Fronteers that focused on object-oriented design in JavaScript and how we use some principles in MooTools. Valerio attended the conference with me and, since we were there, we talked a lot about MooTools.
4. What about other frameworks?
I and other speakers / developers at the Fronteers conference talked to each other, we are all on the same team! We love other frameworks, and we love the contribution they make to the JavaScript community, and we want all of you to love them too. We do not compete with any of them. If you think jQuery is better for your current project, use it! This is a well-proven and refined framework. I also want an end to the wars between the frameworks. If developers normally communicate with each other, then users should do this. Let's not scold other frameworks anymore, okay?
5. What next?
We are working on release 1.2.1, which will be very soon. The biggest problem that needs to be addressed is in Class.js, but anyone who has looked at the code understands that this is not a trivial task. I am working on rewriting Class.js so that it works again with Safari2 and Opera, without dirty hacks. I will say when we are done and everything will be tested. 1.2.1 will also contain many other bug fixes. There is one problem with Request, which may require a small API change. If this happens, I will talk about this small change when there will be a release.
After 1.2.1, we will start developing MooTools 1.3. If we decide that there should be other changes that should be in the releases, you can release one or two interim releases, but we will solve this during the development process. 1.3 will contain several new things that we have not yet decided on. I will make a few posts about this on the blog when it's all over.
I think this small amount of official information is enough to make it clear what is happening and what will happen with MooTools. If there are other questions that I have not raised, you can ask them.
Thanks,
- Tom Occhino
PS: sorry, I can’t count :)