Topic: The Ajax Experience

A mea culpa, and a launch date, for Really Simple History 0.8

Brian Dillard, Monday, September 15, 2008 @ 2:47 pm

Time to come clean: I've been a terrible project lead on Really Simple History since version 0.6 launched last fall. The problem has been twofold:

1. lack of documentation
2. lack of time

The essential functionality of RSH works well in most supported browsers, but there are several special cases that have to be coded around in your actual application. Even basic usage, however, is documented mostly through example, not through tutorial-style, narrative prose. This has resulted in lots of noise in the issue tracker from folks seeking guidance on how to use the library. For all the folks whose questions and bug reports have gone unanswered, I offer a sincere and heartfelt apology. And to the more experienced users who stepped up to answer questions and help out, I offer heartfelt thanks.

The launch of Safari 3 caused some serious problems because code created to work around Safari 2's deficiencies caused things to break in Safari 3. I should have accepted suggested patches from some gallant RSH users and pushed out a new version months ago. But to be honest, I was so swamped with paid client work for Pathfinder that I couldn't find the time. I've learned my lesson about brittle, browser-specific workarounds. The next version of the library will fail far more gracefully.

Speaking of the next release: RSH 0.8 is nearing completion. I expect to publish an alpha version to coincide with my presentation October 1 at The Ajax Experience. My talk covers lots of interesting developments in Ajax history management, and I figured I should, you know, deliver the goods to my users before getting up on that stage.

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