Who will be fixing QuickText for Thunderbird 60?
Hi all,
as I understand it, the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over the
responsibility for QuickText.
Who will make it fit for Thunderbird 60? It's known not to be working:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1391020
I had an unsuccessful go at fixing it, my latest version is attached to
the bug.
Jörg.
Could you elaborate on "the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText"?
Has the add-on maintainer abandoned it? Do we have explicit confirmation
from him of that, or are we just guessing since it hasn't been updated
in almost two years? Have we tried to contact the maintainer recently
about the new problems in TB 60?
If the maintainer of the add-on has abandoned it, then how does that
relate to the fact that there is apparently also a paid "Pro" version of
the add-on which supposedly has more features? I assume that even if we
figure out how to fix the free version, the Pro version will still be
broken?
jik
On 4/6/18 2:51 AM, Jörg Knobloch wrote:
Hi all,
as I understand it, the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over the
responsibility for QuickText.
Who will make it fit for Thunderbird 60? It's known not to be working:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1391020
I had an unsuccessful go at fixing it, my latest version is attached
to the bug.
Jörg.
Maildev mailing list
Maildev@lists.thunderbird.net
http://lists.thunderbird.net/mailman/listinfo/maildev_lists.thunderbird.net
On 09/04/2018 19:21, Jonathan Kamens wrote:
Could you elaborate on "the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText"?
Has the add-on maintainer abandoned it? Do we have explicit
confirmation from him of that, or are we just guessing since it hasn't
been updated in almost two years? Have we tried to contact the
maintainer recently about the new problems in TB 60?
If the maintainer of the add-on has abandoned it, then how does that
relate to the fact that there is apparently also a paid "Pro" version
of the add-on which supposedly has more features? I assume that even
if we figure out how to fix the free version, the Pro version will
still be broken?
Long story, here the abridged version:
The author of the add-on publicly declared that he has given up support
of the add-on. He made a donation to the Thunderbird project and
expressed his wish that the project take over the responsibility. To my
knowledge there was no formal agreement or contract to that effect.
Kent James (himself a user) got the author to change the license and
fixed the add-on for TB 45 (and 52?):
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/quicktext/.
I believe this is the "Pro" version which is now free of charge.
Since this is a popular add-on, there might be a perceived moral
obligation to honour the author's wish and keep it going. I tried fixing
it in bug 1391020 in my spare time (like I fixed other add-ons for my
own use), but in the end hit a snag. Since I'm not a user, I don't even
know how it's supposed to work and couldn't distinguish broken from working.
Does that (almost) answer the questions?
Jörg.
Here's something that I sent to Jörg and the Thunderbird Council in
response to a similar question, slightly edited:
"The issue was that this very popular addon was effectively abandoned by
the author, and it had a very restrictive license so could not be forked
or fixed independently. Every TB update I proposed fixes, and with much
effort got his attention to update the addon. After a couple of years of
persuasion, I finally got him to open source the license, and add me as
an owner on the account so it could be updated.
Then he surprised us by making a donation to Thunderbird (which was the
income he had generated in a year from the Pro version), with the
statement that was something like "to be used to keep Quicktext
running". No agreement or discussion, and I may have contacted him to
mention that we could not actually commit to use the donation in a
targeted manner. But reasonably I think it would be good to honor his
wished if possible."
Concerning the Pro version, the author also open sourced that, but there
was never an attempt made to update it. So as far as I know the Pro
version was not working in TB 52, but could be made working. Really, if
work on this continues, the Pro version should replace the free version.
Looking over the status, I see this was still locked up in private
repositories. I have now made this public at
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext
The actual text from the original author to me is:
On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 12:37 PM Emil Hesslow <hesslow@gmail.com
mailto:hesslow@gmail.com> wrote:
/You are now added on //addons.mozilla.org http://addons.mozilla.org/
/
/
/I also added you to the two privacy repos on //github.com
http://github.com//. One repo for the existing extension and one for a
rewrite I started but didn't get very far with./
/
/
/Feel free to move the code anywhere you want. And also feel free to
make it public. /
/
//Also the repo contains Quicktext Pro and the free version. Feel free
to add the paid features into the free one./
// Emil//
/
He also switched the license on AMO to MPL.
:rkent
On 4/9/2018 10:21 AM, Jonathan Kamens wrote:
Could you elaborate on "the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText"?
Has the add-on maintainer abandoned it? Do we have explicit
confirmation from him of that, or are we just guessing since it hasn't
been updated in almost two years? Have we tried to contact the
maintainer recently about the new problems in TB 60?
If the maintainer of the add-on has abandoned it, then how does that
relate to the fact that there is apparently also a paid "Pro" version
of the add-on which supposedly has more features? I assume that even
if we figure out how to fix the free version, the Pro version will
still be broken?
jik
On 4/6/18 2:51 AM, Jörg Knobloch wrote:
Hi all,
as I understand it, the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText.
Who will make it fit for Thunderbird 60? It's known not to be
working: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1391020
I had an unsuccessful go at fixing it, my latest version is attached
to the bug.
Jörg.
Maildev mailing list
Maildev@lists.thunderbird.net
http://lists.thunderbird.net/mailman/listinfo/maildev_lists.thunderbird.net
I will make the Pro version of this add-on compatible with TB 52 and TB
60 and commit to maintaining it for as long as TB 60 is the current GA
release (and perhaps beyond that, depending on how difficult it ends up
being to migrate add-ons to the next release of TB after 60) in exchange
for half of the donation that was made to the TB foundation, full access
to the AMO page and Github repository containing the source code, and
the right to put a donation link on the add-on page and a donation
pop-up in the add-on itself (modeled after the one in Send Later, which
has "Donate now", "Remind me later", "I already donated", and "Stop
asking" buttons, all of which except "Remind me later" prevent the
add-on from asking again).
If you're interested, you know how to reach me.
jik
On 4/9/18 3:32 PM, R Kent James wrote:
Here's something that I sent to Jörg and the Thunderbird Council in
response to a similar question, slightly edited:
"The issue was that this very popular addon was effectively abandoned
by the author, and it had a very restrictive license so could not be
forked or fixed independently. Every TB update I proposed fixes, and
with much effort got his attention to update the addon. After a couple
of years of persuasion, I finally got him to open source the license,
and add me as an owner on the account so it could be updated.
Then he surprised us by making a donation to Thunderbird (which was
the income he had generated in a year from the Pro version), with the
statement that was something like "to be used to keep Quicktext
running". No agreement or discussion, and I may have contacted him to
mention that we could not actually commit to use the donation in a
targeted manner. But reasonably I think it would be good to honor his
wished if possible."
Concerning the Pro version, the author also open sourced that, but
there was never an attempt made to update it. So as far as I know the
Pro version was not working in TB 52, but could be made working.
Really, if work on this continues, the Pro version should replace the
free version.
Looking over the status, I see this was still locked up in private
repositories. I have now made this public at
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext
The actual text from the original author to me is:
On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 12:37 PM Emil Hesslow <hesslow@gmail.com
mailto:hesslow@gmail.com> wrote:
/You are now added on //addons.mozilla.org http://addons.mozilla.org/
/
/
/I also added you to the two privacy repos on //github.com
http://github.com//. One repo for the existing extension and one for
a rewrite I started but didn't get very far with./
/
/
/Feel free to move the code anywhere you want. And also feel free to
make it public. /
/
//Also the repo contains Quicktext Pro and the free version. Feel free
to add the paid features into the free one./
// Emil//
/
He also switched the license on AMO to MPL.
:rkent
On 4/9/2018 10:21 AM, Jonathan Kamens wrote:
Could you elaborate on "the Thunderbird project has somehow taken
over the responsibility for QuickText"?
Has the add-on maintainer abandoned it? Do we have explicit
confirmation from him of that, or are we just guessing since it
hasn't been updated in almost two years? Have we tried to contact the
maintainer recently about the new problems in TB 60?
If the maintainer of the add-on has abandoned it, then how does that
relate to the fact that there is apparently also a paid "Pro" version
of the add-on which supposedly has more features? I assume that even
if we figure out how to fix the free version, the Pro version will
still be broken?
jik
On 4/6/18 2:51 AM, Jörg Knobloch wrote:
Hi all,
as I understand it, the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText.
Who will make it fit for Thunderbird 60? It's known not to be
working: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1391020
I had an unsuccessful go at fixing it, my latest version is attached
to the bug.
Jörg.
Maildev mailing list
Maildev@lists.thunderbird.net
http://lists.thunderbird.net/mailman/listinfo/maildev_lists.thunderbird.net
A working version of quicktext is now available on AMO:
https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/addon/quicktext/
How should we go on with the pro version? The pro version is available
in the "pro" branch at:
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext
I still need to get a few things tested but I think i have a working pro
version here as well. Should I just push it as the next version of
quicktest to AMO? So making the pro features available to everybody?
What do I have to do to get my pending PR accepted?
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext/pull/1
I did make all the requested changes, but it is still just sitting there.
Best regards,
John
Am 09.04.2018 um 21:32 schrieb R Kent James:
Here's something that I sent to Jörg and the Thunderbird Council in
response to a similar question, slightly edited:
"The issue was that this very popular addon was effectively abandoned
by the author, and it had a very restrictive license so could not be
forked or fixed independently. Every TB update I proposed fixes, and
with much effort got his attention to update the addon. After a couple
of years of persuasion, I finally got him to open source the license,
and add me as an owner on the account so it could be updated.
Then he surprised us by making a donation to Thunderbird (which was
the income he had generated in a year from the Pro version), with the
statement that was something like "to be used to keep Quicktext
running". No agreement or discussion, and I may have contacted him to
mention that we could not actually commit to use the donation in a
targeted manner. But reasonably I think it would be good to honor his
wished if possible."
Concerning the Pro version, the author also open sourced that, but
there was never an attempt made to update it. So as far as I know the
Pro version was not working in TB 52, but could be made working.
Really, if work on this continues, the Pro version should replace the
free version.
Looking over the status, I see this was still locked up in private
repositories. I have now made this public at
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext
The actual text from the original author to me is:
On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 12:37 PM Emil Hesslow <hesslow@gmail.com
mailto:hesslow@gmail.com> wrote:
/You are now added on //addons.mozilla.org http://addons.mozilla.org/
/
/
/I also added you to the two privacy repos on //github.com
http://github.com//. One repo for the existing extension and one for
a rewrite I started but didn't get very far with./
/
/
/Feel free to move the code anywhere you want. And also feel free to
make it public. /
/
//Also the repo contains Quicktext Pro and the free version. Feel free
to add the paid features into the free one./
// Emil//
/
He also switched the license on AMO to MPL.
:rkent
On 4/9/2018 10:21 AM, Jonathan Kamens wrote:
Could you elaborate on "the Thunderbird project has somehow taken
over the responsibility for QuickText"?
Has the add-on maintainer abandoned it? Do we have explicit
confirmation from him of that, or are we just guessing since it
hasn't been updated in almost two years? Have we tried to contact the
maintainer recently about the new problems in TB 60?
If the maintainer of the add-on has abandoned it, then how does that
relate to the fact that there is apparently also a paid "Pro" version
of the add-on which supposedly has more features? I assume that even
if we figure out how to fix the free version, the Pro version will
still be broken?
jik
On 4/6/18 2:51 AM, Jörg Knobloch wrote:
Hi all,
as I understand it, the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText.
Who will make it fit for Thunderbird 60? It's known not to be
working: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1391020
I had an unsuccessful go at fixing it, my latest version is attached
to the bug.
Jörg.
Maildev mailing list
Maildev@lists.thunderbird.net
http://lists.thunderbird.net/mailman/listinfo/maildev_lists.thunderbird.net
I went ahead and approved the PR now. Thx!
Making the pro version the default sounds good to me.
-Magnus
On 20-04-2018 11:09, John Bieling wrote:
A working version of quicktext is now available on AMO:
https://addons.mozilla.org/de/thunderbird/addon/quicktext/
How should we go on with the pro version? The pro version is available
in the "pro" branch at:
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext
I still need to get a few things tested but I think i have a working
pro version here as well. Should I just push it as the next version of
quicktest to AMO? So making the pro features available to everybody?
What do I have to do to get my pending PR accepted?
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext/pull/1
I did make all the requested changes, but it is still just sitting there.
Best regards,
John
Am 09.04.2018 um 21:32 schrieb R Kent James:
Here's something that I sent to Jörg and the Thunderbird Council in
response to a similar question, slightly edited:
"The issue was that this very popular addon was effectively abandoned
by the author, and it had a very restrictive license so could not be
forked or fixed independently. Every TB update I proposed fixes, and
with much effort got his attention to update the addon. After a
couple of years of persuasion, I finally got him to open source the
license, and add me as an owner on the account so it could be updated.
Then he surprised us by making a donation to Thunderbird (which was
the income he had generated in a year from the Pro version), with the
statement that was something like "to be used to keep Quicktext
running". No agreement or discussion, and I may have contacted him to
mention that we could not actually commit to use the donation in a
targeted manner. But reasonably I think it would be good to honor his
wished if possible."
Concerning the Pro version, the author also open sourced that, but
there was never an attempt made to update it. So as far as I know the
Pro version was not working in TB 52, but could be made working.
Really, if work on this continues, the Pro version should replace the
free version.
Looking over the status, I see this was still locked up in private
repositories. I have now made this public at
https://github.com/thundernest/quicktext
The actual text from the original author to me is:
On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 12:37 PM Emil Hesslow <hesslow@gmail.com
mailto:hesslow@gmail.com> wrote:
/You are now added on //addons.mozilla.org http://addons.mozilla.org/
/
/
/I also added you to the two privacy repos on //github.com
http://github.com//. One repo for the existing extension and one
for a rewrite I started but didn't get very far with./
/
/
/Feel free to move the code anywhere you want. And also feel free to
make it public. /
/
//Also the repo contains Quicktext Pro and the free version. Feel
free to add the paid features into the free one./
// Emil//
/
He also switched the license on AMO to MPL.
:rkent
On 4/9/2018 10:21 AM, Jonathan Kamens wrote:
Could you elaborate on "the Thunderbird project has somehow taken
over the responsibility for QuickText"?
Has the add-on maintainer abandoned it? Do we have explicit
confirmation from him of that, or are we just guessing since it
hasn't been updated in almost two years? Have we tried to contact
the maintainer recently about the new problems in TB 60?
If the maintainer of the add-on has abandoned it, then how does that
relate to the fact that there is apparently also a paid "Pro"
version of the add-on which supposedly has more features? I assume
that even if we figure out how to fix the free version, the Pro
version will still be broken?
jik
On 4/6/18 2:51 AM, Jörg Knobloch wrote:
Hi all,
as I understand it, the Thunderbird project has somehow taken over
the responsibility for QuickText.
Who will make it fit for Thunderbird 60? It's known not to be
working: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1391020
I had an unsuccessful go at fixing it, my latest version is
attached to the bug.
Jörg.
Maildev mailing list
Maildev@lists.thunderbird.net
http://lists.thunderbird.net/mailman/listinfo/maildev_lists.thunderbird.net
On 20/04/2018 20:37, Magnus Melin wrote:
Making the pro version the default sounds good to me.
That was the idea. What are the differences?
Jörg.