About unmaintaining this module [#874060]

Right, after nearly 7 months I can give out some information.

First of all, I've positively 'unmaintained' this module. I've heard this can cause problems with the Upgrade module. This can be switched out at admin/logs/updates/settings. See this page for someone else who has taken this step.

Quite a while ago now I left an enigmatic message saying I would be away for a while, but hoped to stay in touch. I couldn't even manage that basic support, for the simple reason I had no computer. I had no home either, but that's a peripheral, I guess.

I'm in no position to be a maintainer now. I'm left with one small computer and can't cross-browser test or, at the moment, even step debug. It takes me 15 mins just to run Theme Developer, and ... what the heck, you get the idea.

I never had the best computing facilities, but I knew I was answering a need and did pretty well in the end. The fact several of my ideas have been taken up round the community sort of shows that, though I've found the lack of accreditation discouraging (Taxonomy Menu guys get a small exception here). And the fact that, despite initial scorn (coders, not site designers) Taxonomy Treemenu is plainly on a lot of folks wishlists.

Not only the computing facilities, but the will has gone. Plenty of ex-maintainers seem to fudge this issue or glance over it. Taxonomy Treemenu was me scratching an itch. It was a release to dip away for a couple of hours and work on it. Especially as, I don't know why, but we just had the friendliest, most progressive issue queue here.

Now I find I find myself at least free, but in reduced circumstances. I have to ask myself, what can Drupal do? I took a month out to see, which became two months, and I turned out plenty of software as a result, but can't guarantee a standard for Drupal site releases.

This is the end of my involvement for now.

In another context, I've already taken some flack for not being 'public spirited'. The page linked above has this to say,

"You cannot use open source in a bubble by yourself and be successful. You must not only share, but get others to use your module too so they have a shared interest in getting it upgraded as Drupal grows."

Great. Opinions welcome. But do attach your annual salary and then I can rank your indignation.

I'd like to give thanks for all the great posts on the queue, and to the people I swapped ideas with. It was a pleasure to meet you (in a web-like fashion), and I'm going to miss that.

Rob

Comments

Comment #1

rcrowther CreditAttribution: rcrowther commented 4 August 2010 at 21:45

First up, I expect the current version to last out Drupal 6. Despite (or perhaps because of) the complexity and weight we are only pulling minor issues even now.

For anyone who is interested in maintaining or cannibalizing the Taxonomy Treemenu code, this is what you get:

A link builder. This is one of the reasons Taxonomy Treemenu has been so stable since V5. On the negative site, it hits the menu system at core level and I don't recommend you go near it - my current solutions have atrophied this approach.
The admin pages. Nobody has remarked on it, probably because it just works, but those free-floating tabs are not core Drupal, they are a modified version of the table code. Worth a module in themselves, if anyone is interested in such things. The in-place use of Advanced Help is also worth looking over.
Help. TTM always had superior help, and if you want to know about the Drupal menu system in general, there's lots of good information.
Flexible query builder. At some point, I figure Drupal should have one of these built in, as an optional core API. Mine isn't as flexible as Views, but it's neat object-orientated code, and could have uses beyond TTM.
The renderers. These have no interest on their own, as they are module specific. Would be worth a look by other menu module builders, but by the time you understood them I figure you could build your own. Again, my current approach to this kind of code is somewhat different.

TTM is worth maintaining, if only for existing installations and because there is a lot more to be squeezed from it. On the other hand, I would say TTM is not worth further progressive development. It's highly functional as it is, and beyond that I know for certain there is a better way.