Plans for Vocal

Plans for Vocal.md

There's no easy way to say this: Vocal has been left out to dry a bit over the past few years, and is in desperate need for some TLC. I'm sorry that I let it wither on the vine for so long. I experienced a series of medical issues that left me with little free time, and no energy to devote to projects in the free time I had. I'm happy to report that things are back to normal (as much as they can be), and I am enjoying a healthy lifestyle and daily routine that allows me to continue working on the things I love.

Over the past few months, I've been working hard on a new app, which you can find here. I wanted to start with a new app rather than jump right back into Vocal for a number of reasons. For one, I wanted to ease back into development, and re-familiarize myself with the APIs and environment. I also wanted to have a clean start to work with libadwaita, and gain some experience working with it. I'm happy to report that things there went spectacularly, and I'm properly back in the groove. With that, let's turn our focus over to Vocal.

Here are some changes that I'll be making over the next month or so, with some explanations behind the thinking:

1. Vocal will be ported to GTK 4, and will be using libadwaita. When I first created Vocal, I wanted to push the boundaries on what Linux apps could do. At the time, back in 2013, we made heavy use of the excellent Granite framework, and incorporated new technologies that were on the forefront (at the time). In that spirit, we'll be using the updated GTK 4 UI toolkit, and using libadwaita for a more consistent look and feel across various distirbutions, and also provide for an adaptive interface that makes it a great choice for users running Linux on phones and tablets.
2. Vocal will be moving from the Needle and Thread organization to a newly created "VocalPodcastProject" ("VocalProject was already taken) organization in GitHub. Needle and Thread was a company that I had intended to start several years ago, but it never got off the ground. Any references to Needle and Thread will be removed within the app.
3. We'll be making the next version 4.0, instead of 3.0. The 3.0 release is mired in years of stagnant development and false starts, and overall has bad juju. I want to skip over it entirely and jump straight to 4.0.
4. The primary place to get Vocal will be on Flathub (as a Flatpak). We will not be publishing any Snap, AppImage, or Debian packages. It will still be available in the elementaryOS AppCenter. That said, the price will be changing to 'Free.' There will still be ways to financially contribute if you'd like (including a Donate button in the menu), but paid apps in AppCenter are not automatically included in updates (unless you pay for it first), and I want to make sure that each update goes out to as many folks as possible, with the least friction possible.
5. I would like to create a new icon for Vocal. While the icon we currently have is great and has served us well, it's beginning to feel its age. I'd like to update to a newer, GNOME-style icon. If you would like to help with this, please get in touch!
6. The Internet Archive integration that was added in the last release will be removed. That feature is something likely to only be used by a small group of users, adds quite a bit of overhead and maintenance work to the app, and could also potentially lead to legal complexities about redistributing third-party content.
7. gpodder.net intrgration will remain, and will be completed for its first ever inclusion in a stable release.
8. While this is not a complete re-write, most of the UI elements will be re-written from the ground up. In order to make the port to GTK 4 and libadwaita as seamless as possible, and to avoid conflicts within the code, I will not be accepting any pull requests leading up to the beta release for 4.0. I wouldn't want anyone to submit something that was either duplicated, or would not longer be applicable due to the transition. Once the transition is complete, we will of course welcome any and all pull requests. There are some pull requests currently waiting for a reply, so I will make sure to respond to those first before this new policy begins.
9. (Possibly) I'm considering removing video support within the app. Adding in a full video player adds to the complexity tremendously, and video podcasts have fallen out of fashion over the past decade since I first started Vocal. TWiT.tv is the only major network I'm aware of that is still publishing video podcasts regularly. I still have not fully decided on this, and would welcome feedback from any ardent video podcast fans (nathandyer at fastmail dot com or @nathandyer_ on Twitter).

I hope you look forward to these changes! I'm excited to get a new, rock-solid, lightning quick release out into the world as quickly as possible. I'll be working on it five days a week as much as possible, and expect to see something concrete within the next month or so. As always, I'll continue to post updates on my social media (including Vocal's dedicated Twitter account), and you are welcome to follow the development here in GitHub. Please note that I won't be uploading anything for a week or so, as I plan to work on the initial port offline before uploading.

Please reach out if you have any questions or comments!

Is Vocal dead?