Working on the JavaScript in Tracks is like unraveling a sweater. You pull on some seemingly innocuous thread hanging out, and before you know it, the entire sweater has come undone. I knew things wouldn’t get finished unless I completely removed Prototype, but in pulling it out I’ve destroyed much of the functionality of Tracks. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting things back to a usable state, and to that end I’m doing pretty well. Autocomplete is still gone, and won’t be back for a little while I as I work on more pressing issues. I’ve gotten the basic editing functionality back in place, but recurring todos are a bit of a mess. JavaScript is everywhere in Tracks, and re-writing it all is quite an undertaking. I’m still convinced I can finish by the end of the semester, and I think the results will be pretty impressive.
In other news, I’ve become pretty much the only active maintainer on Tracks. The other three or four core maintainers are currently busy with other parts of their lives and don’t have much time to contribute to the project. We still have new people asking questions on the mailing list, submitting bugs, and trying their hand at patches. The responsibility for interfacing with these people has now fallen on me, and I’m excited to take it on. I’ve been with the project for almost two years now, so I’m quite comfortable working with the newbies. It was my first major Rails project, much less open source, so I can relate to those who’ve never worked with Rails before. It’s a great project to cut your teeth on, and we do our best to be a welcoming community.
