Re: Some thoughts on MobileOrg and its development ....

[Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com>]

Carlos Sosa writes:

> There's a difference feature wise between MobileOrgNG[1] and
> MobileOrg-Android[2], which I believe should be merged into one project.
> For instance, I don't know of MobileOrgNG having a SSH synchronizer
> which many people make use of, including me, but with that said,
> MobileOrgNG has a far greater and friendlier interface.
>
> I would suggest merging both projects for the sake of a better user
> experience.

Well, again, the fundamental problem here is that none of these three
MobileOrg* projects are being actively worked on / maintained. The last
commit to MobileOrgNG was on 13 February last year (and is "149 commits
ahead, 863 commits behind" MobileOrg-Android). And despite
not-insignificant discussion here on the Org mailing list about the
MobileOrg* projects over the last few months, none of the lead devs for
any of these projects has chimed in, which suggests work on the Org
ecosystem is a very low priority for them right now. So it seems to me
that the likelihood of getting the two projects to work on a merge
process is similarly very low.

It's certainly true that someone could create a third Android-specific
version of MobileOrg that combines what they feel to be the best of both
Android apps. However, assuming that new app took off, we would still
have two different implementations on two different platforms where
fixes and improvements to code and documentation on one platform
wouldn't be immediately useful and/or appropriate for the other
platform. (Not to mention there'd still not be even theoretical support
for platforms other than iOS and Android.)

From a purely selfish point of view, as an Android user, a new Android
app combining MobileOrg-Android and MobileOrgNG would probably meet my
needs in the short term. In the medium to long term, however, i'm not
yet convinced that it would make the Org-on-mobile-devices situation
much more sustainably active than it is now.


Alexis.