SMF Dev Blog #42: The Blog About Life, The Universe And Everything

[Arantor]

There are 4 developers and the rest of the team helps by beta testing amongst other things.

[Kenny01]

There are 4 developers and the rest of the team helps by beta testing amongst other things.

Thanks for making it clear.

[SleePy]

There are 4 developers and the rest of the team helps by beta testing amongst other things.

While we have 4 official developers, we do have others who have been doing a great deal of work.  Most of their work is hidden due to it being curve related though

[ѕησω]

While we have 4 official developers, we do have others who have been doing a great deal of work.  Most of their work is hidden due to it being curve related though

Let me guess, some of our Customizer's

[searchgr]

.

[Arantor]

I've been keeping the flame with regards to 2.0 coming out, and I'm really looking forward to it - even though I can see that I'm likely to be deploying my project with an RC of 2.0 as it stands. (The weird thing is, most of the bugs I've heard about in 2.0 haven't actually hit me yet)

But as you can see from the first post, it's not exactly stagnant, and considering how much of a rewrite from 1.1 to 2.0, it's hardly surprising.

[HecKel]

Before you try to guess who is helping, just check the bug tracker. I do that often and I see NOT ONLY the developers working! You don't need to guess anything, just look around and you'll get a surprise.

Sometime ago I was also angry because of the late version of SMF, now that I see that they are really working I would rather wait then complain, if I can't help I just wait.

Yes, SMF 2.0 was a HUGE mistake, a huge step that lead us to a long wait, but I am pretty sure they have learned the lesson, but now just wait.

[Arantor]

Was 2.0 that much of a mistake? The amount of new features in it justify the time spent on it. IMO the only mistake I've really observed was the decision to switch to a new default theme between release candidates - that should have been done prior to RC1.

[HecKel]

Ok, I didn't explain myself properly.

When I say that was a mistake is that they could have done a more progressive work, some of the new features could have been added in SMF 2.1, 2.2, etc instead of ALL at once! That was the mistake in my opinion because that lead them to a HUGE delay.

If we are talking about the final product, I am more than happy! I am using SMF 2.0 RC1-2 and I am loving it!

About the theme, that wasn't a mistake, was a need. Unfortunately they had to do it.

[Arantor]

With respect to the theme, there is no doubt that Curve is long overdue. However the timing is what I would look at - you don't normally add such a colossal thing to a release candidate. The idea is that in an RC the major bugs have been squished and you'd be happy to consider it a release, but you want to push it out to users for testing.

As regards the other features, what would you have removed from 2.0 and put into 2.1 etc?

[gonemental]

While we have 4 official developers, we do have others who have been doing a great deal of work.  Most of their work is hidden due to it being curve related though

Let me guess, some of our Customizer's

actually 90% of the mods exists because SMF wasnt designed in a flexible manner but just as a fork of YABBse in php.

SMF is great but it should be rewritten from scratch and i can't see how the 2.0 is going in the right direction.

[Arantor]

Actually, the reason 90% of the mods exist is because people don't want cookie-cutter forums. Even if it were completely rewritten - a hypothetical 3.0, say - I can guarantee you you'd still have the same volume of mods.

[gonemental]

yes SMF may be delayed but what you expect as long as you don't pay a single dime for it ?

if you're really on the cheap why not considering using a nulled copy of VB or IPB instead of whining here ?

I heard this excuse about 10 times. No problem by my side.

it's not an excuse, it's the real situation.

people is getting used to have it all for free and they complain too if you don't give 'em fixes and patches and support and next they'll ask you also for a beer or a coffee.

so in short they want a bug free forum full of mods and features, they plan on making money with it, and they come here ranting and raving while giving nothing back not even one single f-ucking euro to the developers.

VB and IPB are pretty happy of dealing with paying customers while leaving the crooks on SMF, phpBB, etc

SMF is free, and if it takes 5 years to get the 2.0 so be it ... you get what you pay for ... you nothing therefore you wait.

and dont joke yourself ... after 2.0 there will be a plethora of patches and bugfixes so a final and rock solid 2.0 is very far at the horizon unless proven otherwise.

if you're serious on your business stay away from free open source cms and forums.
the house must be built on the rocks not on the sand.

[Arantor]

And vB and IPB don't have a plethora of patches and bugfixes? Show me a single version of either - that has not had a SINGLE patch or bugfix after its release. (Note: saying "the latest" doesn't count because both the latest IPB and vB have had patches and bugfixes)

I agree there are a lot of people who want to come here, get the software for free then complain about it. Fortunately there are enough people who care here.

Oh, and 'serious about business', staying away from open source CMS and forums? Tell that to Wikipedia and WordPress which as I write are in Alexa's top 20. But both use open source CMSes.

I also know some companies that would have released SMF 2.0 RC1 as a 'final' release, so the fact that it is taking long to mature means the process is being done properly.


Mods: please close this topic. It's gone far off topic and is now rapidly becoming a rant on all sides about the delays in 2.0.

[searchgr]

[metallica48423]

2.0 is much more than just a rewrite, and is much more than just new features.

Personally, I find 2.0 much more flexible than 1.1, especially in terms of customization.

2.0 is also a stepping stone, and the beginning of a new idealism behind the development of SMF.

Heckel hit it on the nose.  yes, SMF has 3 "official" developers.  These people are the people responsible for ensuring the quality of the codebase and managing the fixes that

SMF has team members from nearly every team contributing to bugfixing, testing, and other side projects.

If you want to see what exactly is going on with development, give the bugtracker a good read -- that is why SMF opened it to all to see .

[gonemental]

no offence but i can't see how 2.0 is technologically a step forward.

it's still hardcoded in many ways, you still need to patch core files and template to add mods or hacks.

it's not therefore a real "modular" forum architecture, it's kept all together with duct tape and strings
which is the obvious reason it takes years to debug and release a stable version.

[Arantor]

As has been said - it's a stepping stone towards moving on. 3.0 may well be far more modular, but we don't know what that roadmap looks like.

But what I can tell you is that any package that is very modular is also harder to customise, and usually slower, too.

[gonemental]

As has been said - it's a stepping stone towards moving on. 3.0 may well be far more modular, but we don't know what that roadmap looks like.

But what I can tell you is that any package that is very modular is also harder to customise, and usually slower, too.

exactly, and this is the drawback of writing modular code.

modular code IS slower, there's not much to do.

but the real bottleneck are all these useless features users love to add on their forums,
like wysiwig editors, avatars, smilies, icons everywhere, links everywhere, videos, ... for god's suck, it's just a forum not a light version of Facebook or Myspace !

[Tristan Perry]

but the real bottleneck are all these useless features users love to add on their forums,
like wysiwig editors, avatars, smilies, icons everywhere, links everywhere, videos, ... for god's suck, it's just a forum not a light version of Facebook or Myspace !

I think that SMF have got the balance right there - yes they have these features (which I think *are* part of a forums), but they aren't OTT. You only have to look at vBulletin (or vSocialCommunity??) to look at things going OTT with social networking features.