So it’s the end of 2009. I addressed this year in a recent post of mine and I really don’t have anymore to add to that. But instead, I’d like to give my thanks to a bunch of organizations and software.
MooTools
MooTools has been my javascript fasination since the dawn of time and I still love it. This year, Mootools has made bounds and strides, coming a long way to setup an incredible foundation for the future of the library. Today, actually, on the eve of the new year, the MooTools team released an upgrade helper for migration from version 1.11 to 1.2. You can checkout some related blog posts about that on Clientcide and the MooTools blog. You can download this wonderful helper at the bottom of the download page. In short, thank you Mootools for keeping me in touch with javascript, giving me a reason to help out the community and get away from that pesky Java.
Google
Well, Google does a lot for me. It provides Gmail, Reader, News, tons of other stuff I can’t discern easily enough from everyday use and of course, a pretty decent search engine. I backup my Gmail accounts with Thunderbird these days, I read my feeds for news continuously throughout the day and of course, I search every now and then. So, thank you Google, for giving me all of this free stuff. (Though I ask you keep your hands off my data!)
WordPress
I love blogging. Therefore, I like WordPress. It has served me well this year, even through a storm of vulnerabilities and a couple of major upgrades. I’d love to make a theme for this blog, based on Hybrid of course and maybe develop a plug-in or two. So thank you WordPress for giving me the ability to share my knowledge and thoughts with the world! I’d also like to give thanks to the plug-in authors:
Matt Mullenweg for Akismet, Michael Torbert for AiOSP, Takayuki Miyoshi for Contact Form 7, Ronald Heft for Google Analyticator, Arne Brachhold for Sitemaps, Michael VanDeMar for Login LockDown, Mark Jaquith for Subscribe to Comments, Viper0007Bond for SH Evolved, Andy Skelton for WordPress Stats, Austin Matzko for WP DB Backup, Thaya Kareeson for WP Greet Box, Donncha O Caoimh for WP Super Cache and finally, Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine for YARPP.
Thank you guys. Thank you so much.
Microsoft
I’m not ashamed to thank Microsoft for Windows 7. So far, I love it. I can’t wait until I get to beta test for Microsoft again. I’ll sign an NDA if I can get early beta testing for anything. It’s a great OS, it works, it’s simple. I hosted a Windows 7 party in October and I am so very glad they allowed me to do so! My guests liked Windows 7 as they had a number of problems with Vista. So thanks Microsoft for doing a great job.
Who else now? I’m sure there are tons of others I should thank. So thank you guys, for a great year, a great time and so much stuff.
What would you say about this now? I agree with the subtext suggested by the authors of your excerpted posts. There has been an undercurrent in the MooTools-o-sphere for more than a year now: that developers’ insolence leaves the community with much to be desired.
The framework itself is an enigma. How else could you classify something proven to be so powerful, attractive, and yet mesmerizing to those who gaze upon it?
The undercurrent continues to flow, and MooTools momentum has reached a standstill. The various community services (lighthouse, github, google groups, mootools docs, mootools forums, blog, mootorial) have been disbanded or relocated into a dysfunctional, confusing, quagmire. Followers couldn’t help but scratch their collective heads, and newcomers aren’t given the indicators they might need to adopt.
Surely by now, most of the people who have developed a project with MooTools (such as I) have asked themselves, “How much longer do I have to keep asking myself ‘Is MooTools the solution on which I should standardize’?â€Â
And I should add, my play with interrogative in the language of that statement is intentional. I have been reluctant to let MooTools go, though every inch of my being says it has little hope.
(emphasis mine)