As they say, all good things must come to an end. However no matter how
much you expect the inevitable, it's still a bit of a downer when it
does happen.
The Open Source Applications Foundation has
been sponsoring my work on wxPython for about 5 years now. I spend about
half of my time working on Chandler,
supporting the other OSAF engineers with wxPython questions or problems,
or in working on specific needs that OSAF has in wxWidgets or wxPython
itself. I'm free to spend the other half of my time working on wxWidgets
or wxPython in whatever way I want. Typically I use a big chunk of this
time supporting the wxPython community, answering questions on the mail
lists, tracking down bugs that people report, etc. but I also work on
other features or long-term goals for wxPython that may not necessarily
line up with some immediate need that Chandler has. It's been a real
good deal for everybody involved. I've been able to get paid for working
on my favorite hobby, the Chandler project has gotten the support and
expertise that they needed, the wxPython community has also had a large
block of my time and attention, and wxPython itself has had many
improvements and enhancements that I likely would not have had time for
otherwise.
This week OSAF
announced
a restructuring and downsizing of the Chandler team. They want to shift
the focus more towards gaining more users and, since it is an Open
Source project, the building up of a volunteer developer community. The
other goal behind the transition is a desire to stretch out the
remaining funding until the project can find a way to become
self-sustaining. As you've probably guessed by now, I was not one of the
worker bees kept in the hive. I've got a few weeks left on my contract
and then I'll be making my own transition to something else. Although
I've known this was coming, I didn't expect it until the end of this
year, so it's still a bit of a disappointment.
So what does this mean for wxPython? Hopefully nothing, other than some
reduction in the time I am able to spend focused on wxPython. It would
be great to be able to find someone willing to support my working on
wxPython part time like OSAF did, but it's probably pretty unlikely that
that particular lightning will strike in the same place twice. On the
other hand, I expect that my next gig will be something that at least
uses wxPython so there will be some opportunities for some of that
work to roll down to wxPython and the community. Of course, on the
gripping hand, if you or
somebody you know would be interested in sponsoring at least part-time
work on wxPython, please do contact me.
Update: This news was noticed by the
New York Times.