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So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

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Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#201

Post by ricardobeat »

DanHulton wrote: post #115
ricardobeat wrote: post #65

I can sympathize with the author's troubles, and wish he finds a well-paid position that still allows him to work on OSS. That said, the idea that companies would pay for a JS library that is patching browser support is wild. Practically nobody pays for JS modules except for very specific niches (e.g. a charting library) or product/technical support. Especially when it's an indirect dependency of tools you use. Maybe…

The idea that they _don't_ pay for it is wild, honestly. There's no FOSS equivalent in so many other industries - they pay for every part of their supply chain and yet still somehow make a profit. You can't open a hotdog stand and use "FOSS hotdogs". The whole point of the post is that the FOSS model doesn't work and that sucks. I don't know what the answer to that is, and neither does he, but the answer certainly is…

But who said the FOSS model doesn't work? It's been working for decades. Having a well-paid, full-time job as an OSS maintainer is what doesn't work - it's the equivalent of becoming a celebrity, not achievable for 99% regardless of effort.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#202

Post by ricardobeat »

karlshea wrote: post #97
ricardobeat wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Babel has four paid developers, an almost $200k/year budget and hundreds of contributors. I'm sure that's enough to maintain the polyfills, if someone else wasn't already doing it for free - not to throw shade on them, but that's reality (not one I particularly like). I do agree with that second statement. It is unfortunate that he got into this situation, but there is absolutely no reason to continue if it's not wor…

If you would have read the article, you would have seen the image from a Babel maintainer saying they won't fork because they don't have the resources to maintain it.

I recommend reviewing the HN guidelines here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Of course they won't volunteer to maintain a massive project that they depend on, when someone else is already doing the work.

But you can bet the minute core-js goes away, the community will pull together to maintain or create something new, purely out of necessity - that's the main motivator. Hopefully with a more distributed model that doesn't overload a single person.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#203

Post by Tade0 »

Half of the problem here is that, despite extensive funding, the Babel team threw in the towel regarding polyfills and just integrated core-js.

Also TC39 appears to have some housecleaning to do.

> core-js will become a commercial project if it will not have appropriate support from users

I suppose this is the most likely outcome.

Alternatively Vercel might scoop it up considering it's already funding a few other high-profile projects.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#204

Post by [deleted] »

slowmotiony wrote: post #197
newswasboring wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While your argument is kinda bad, its also incorrect. They moved to russia before the current war. Also its their home country, the world isn't progressive enough that this isn't every immigrant's default choice.

Right, but it was after the invasion of Georgia, green men in Donetsk, and the annexation of Crimea? So 3 wars started in the span of 10 years and the guy returns because things are cheaper than in the west. Well, I hope he enjoys his beloved home country now. He will have to stay there for quite a while. Edit* looks like he does indeed enjoy it. Good for him. https://twitter.com/roman01la/status/1625254253156528147/…

[deleted]

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#206

Post by newswasboring »

slowmotiony wrote: post #197
newswasboring wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While your argument is kinda bad, its also incorrect. They moved to russia before the current war. Also its their home country, the world isn't progressive enough that this isn't every immigrant's default choice.

Right, but it was after the invasion of Georgia, green men in Donetsk, and the annexation of Crimea? So 3 wars started in the span of 10 years and the guy returns because things are cheaper than in the west. Well, I hope he enjoys his beloved home country now. He will have to stay there for quite a while. Edit* looks like he does indeed enjoy it. Good for him. https://twitter.com/roman01la/status/1625254253156528147/…

Russia does so many bad things that by that argument all Russians should just move out. I dont know what point you are trying to make with the tweet, I have no context there.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#207

Post by doytch »

sgammon wrote: post #172

could somebody smarter than me explain why core JS is so prevalent? Isn't modern ESM shippable in Chrome and on Edge now?

“Modern ESM” is a moving target. There’s always some new functionality that’s being added to the APIs that devs inevitably want to use. From his article, ‘structuredClone’ is a good example of something that everyone’s lusting over but isn’t quiiite there yet.

There are also still browser quirks etc for some of the newer stuff, and Safari tends to be a laggard, which cuts you off from iOS traffic.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#208

Post by gardenhedge »

kilburn wrote: post #131
nevernude wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the thing is he DID ask for help, quite a few times and was only met with the hate and vitriol you mentioned. Depressing indeed.

You have to ask to the appropriate forum though, and that's what he got completely wrong. Getting npm to scream for help when a developer installs your package is equivalent to asking your peer for a raise. I'd say that over 99.999% of the people who saw that message, created memes about it, etc.. did not have a corporate credit card and the power to use it at their discretion. If you want money from corps, THOSE are…

I literally do not even read that stuff. I wait for the success message or if it fails I start googling why it failed.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#209

Post by danjac »

I contribute what amounts to a few euros a month to a few open source projects. I do these because these projects have significantly helped my career and added to my personal enjoyment. Perhaps not much in the grand scheme of things, but I feel I owe at least that much, especially if I'm not able to help in other ways (PRs for example).

However, when I've asked employers to do the same - just throw what to them is would be tax-deductible chump change at some projects that have helped them make fortunes - there's lot of muttering and foot-dragging. More trouble than it's worth to do the paperwork, apparently.

So we end up in a ludicrous situation where essential software, used by companies with revenues in the billions, depend on a single, relatively impoverished and stressed out developer toiling in obscurity. Google or Facebook or Microsoft could, for what amounts to a rounding error, have just put him on an annual salary or grant.

Re: So what’s next (personal news from developer of popular CoreJS polyfill)

#210

Post by gardenhedge »

kypro wrote: post #107
hexator wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm shocked I have to scroll down so far to see someone complain about that. He absolutely is shifting 100% of the blame for him killing someone onto the person he killed.

Honestly, I feel really sorry for the guy and I'm willing to take him at his word that it wasn't his fault, but I found the bit about him hitting the girls a little off. It almost seemed like he was more angry at them for being in the road than himself for hitting them. As some who has hit someone in my car before and was not to blame (legally at least) I'm more than aware these things happen, but I think if I killed…

I'd be pissed if someone else caused an accident that caused me guilt, prison time, ruined my life. I'd be extremely pissed at them
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