Ever since its launch way back in 2006 MooTools, like most other open source projects, has been the product of the hard work of the people who use it. We, the users of the framework, shaped it into the stable, compact, highly useful suite of tools that helped change the way the web worked.
Over time, the project managed to solve most of the problems that its creators set out to solve. As the original team moved through various careers, always giving time to MooTools, the project matured and browsers got better.
It's been nearly a year since the last release of MooTools Core. Today we're releasing MooTools 1.5 which contains roughly 75 commits, most of which are minor bug fixes.
If you follow MooTools on github you'll note that the project has remained active throughout the last year. The team continues to maintain the codebase, but new features have largely dropped off. This is largely because MooTools... just works.
But it's also the case that the team that brought you the library has also started focusing their energy elsewhere (including the forthcoming MooTools Prime, still in its infancy).
So today, in addition to the release of 1.5, we're also announcing the creation of an official fork of the project - MooTools Edge. Edge is your version of MooTools. It's what you, dear users, make of the project. For all of you who have said to yourselves, "I would contribute to it if I knew how..." and for all of you who have opened pull requests fixing things only to have them sit there unpulled, this is for you.
Edge lives on github just like MooTools, but it has a different purpose and different rules for contributing. Unlike the core project, which has strict standards and processes for contribution (both of which we have not done a great job explaining), edge is there for the changing. Anyone who wishes to contribute, can. There are no rules for how changes will make it into the project - those are up to you as a group to decide.
We're users, too! The dev team will be around to review code, to give advice, and offer guidance when it's asked for. The tools we've built over the years are there, too. You'll find the edge builder features the latest version for you to grab, the docs are online. We'll help with the release process and do whatever we can to help anyone that wants to pitch in get started. More on the nitty gritty details in a bit.
Creating a fork of the project solves several problems that MooTools has right now.
- It creates a version of the framework that we can release quickly and constantly and get into the hands of developers who can help test it and quickly turn changes back around while leaving the core release stable.
- It engages you, our beloved users, and empowers you to push the project forward. What do you want it to be?
- It provides an alternative path for users who cannot move to Prime (which is still early in development) any time soon. MooTools has a legacy and there are a lot of great things written in it. We should maintain and grow them.
- It allows us to recruit the next generation of developers for MooTools. Strong developers that show up and contribute to Edge can be recruited to the core dev team.
- As versions of Edge move forward and become stable, the core team will pull them over and make them official releases. MooTools 1.6 will most likely come from our users.
Simply put, this is your chance to make MooTools into whatever it becomes next. Don't be afraid to dive in. Even if it's fixing documentation, adding support to for the latest build of IE, or improving something that's always bugged you about a method on a class in the library.
Here are the various ways you can get involved right now:
- Join the Edge Google Group
- Download the Edge Development App and install it.
- Go create your own forks the repositories of either Edge Core or Edge More (or both!).
- Go look through any of the open tickets on the core projects (Core Issues, More Issues) and pick one. Fix it!
- Contemplate what you'd like to change about MooTools and suggest it on the Google Group or maybe just hack it in and send a pull request to illustrate what you'd like to see different.
There are other things you can help with. You can help with demos, work on the MooTools Forge (which really could use some love), as well as other tools (like the dev app linked to above).
Or start a new project. A mobile UI and mobile tools! Go through MooTools More and make them accessible with Aria support. Change the way dependencies are built and implement CommonJS. Go build a showcase to show the world how awesome MooTools is...
MooTools just works. But it could be better. It could be more. It could be simpler. More people working on it, in any capacity, will mean a MooTools with a different vision. The development team wants to see what you make of it. Make it so awesome that Edge is the version everyone uses; make it the new MooTools. Find new ways to make MooTools fit in and who knows, you may make it more relevant, useful, and fun than it's ever been.