KompoZer Development Continues

One of the most frequently asked questions is about the development status of KompoZer. KompoZer is still under development and the next release is planned for September only a few days away. This post looks at the KompoZer development road map, comments by the developer, and my take on the usefulness of KompoZer for web authoring.

Wysi Note: See also information posted in 2009 about development and progress toward KompoZer 0.8. We also get a good look at the developer himself.

The KompoZer Developer Said...

Information on the status of KompoZer development has been hard to find since the release of 0.7.10 a year ago. Since then Source Forge counts 1.2 million downloads of the web-authoring tool. I try to keep track of KompoZer development status and found this post on the Source Forge, KompoZer forum a while ago:

RE: Status of Kompozer? By: Kaze (fabiwan) - 2008-07-25 22:57
Yes, this app is still under development.
Sorry for the lack of activity in this project but I'm the only developer and I work on KompoZer on my free time. I'm doing my best to release a new version in September, with a new site manager and hopefully a better code base - this is by far the most important point for the future of KompoZer.
I do keep a eye of the bug reports in the tracker, but I prefer to use the little time I have for coding. If anybody here has some time to manage the bug tracker, please contact me. And of course, if you're experienced in C++ or XUL/JavaScript, feel free ton submit some patches. ;-)
-Kaze

I know what he means about finding time to work on the project. I have not been able to come up with free time to work on this simple-minded blog much less the long promised tutorial. Of course I have no ability to do something more useful like coding.

My mid-term plan is to rewrite the site manager. I've already a prototype of NsmConText + FireFTP that makes a good proof of concept, but I don't find it stable enough yet for a public release. Kaze

KompoZer Development Road Map

It seems that the developer is still on track according to the development plan he published some time ago. A new site manager was the next major evolution according to that plan.

KompoZer is still my tool of choice for web authors who have no technical knowledge. My logic is as simple as, “If I can do it you should be able to do it.” Even without further development KompoZer works and I have not experienced some of the bizarre behaviors reported on the forums. My work around for using KompoZer without a fully developed site manager is to use FireFTP to upload my web sites.

KompoZer and even Nvu are still classics in my mind. I continue to be amazed that many people still use Nvu. KompoZer continued on from Nvu to resolve bugs and add features. Kaze may get the development to the point that he regards KompoZer as a 1.0 and with our gratitude for doing it. Meanwhile KompoZer is still like the early Corvettes – a classic.

Sure there are newer, more expensive models out there but for the basic function and joy of using it you can’t beat a classic.

Wysi

; .