⚠ SSS development is going on an indefinite break ⚠

[CanisLupus]

Hey everyone!

I've been thinking about this for a while and I need to make some changes, as you may have seen from the title. SSS isn't going away, don't worry! But I have to stop maintaining it.

For a TL;DR of the changes, see "Conclusions".

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I have veeeeeery sloooooowly made updates to SSS in recent years, while replying to many emails, issues, and reviews. You have always been great to me. 😄 Supportive, with great suggestions, and not pressuring me either. I must also show my appreciation to the people that donated money even when nothing was required of them. Thank you! 🙏

That said, developing SSS is not exactly fun for me...

• I don't like web development. Shame on me for making a browser addon. 😅 For starters, it's very easy to shoot yourself in the foot when dealing with JavaScript/CSS/HTML. Always has been. The languages get better in some ways, and moving to TypeScript was certainly an improvement for me in SSS, but the improvements can't fix the underlying problems. The web has many inconsistencies. Websites format things differently and break your HTML-based extension, some things are supported only on certain browser versions and with certain caveats, there are random website security policies, other extensions conflict with yours, there are browser bugs or limitations beyond your control, etc. This is not the kind of thing I want to be spending time on. 😐

• For each SSS update I publish, I'm terrified of breaking things for more than 10000 daily users (and I did a few times!). Testing the addon after big changes is a slog due to all the different settings. Even then, besides all the possible human errors, I can't predict the millions of addons and settings users possibly have. That's especially bad when I have to reproduce the problem on my end to fix it. SSS is also way past what I had in mind for it in the beginning. 🙂 I don't even use most of the features we add, although I understand their usefulness.

• SSS is a free addon and it takes a lot of my time to support, even at the small scale it has (and even when not actually creating code). Recently, getting the collaboration of other people like Igor (thank you!) pushed me to review/modify code and finalize changes, but I find that I have no time for that in a sustainable way either. 🙁

All this takes its toll. I want to do other things in my spare time, but have that nagging feeling that I haven't done anything on SSS for a long time, and so I think "I should work on that first". Of course, after checking the issues or the code I very quickly stop wanting to work on it due to the reasons above, which means I get nothing done, not only SSS, which is not good. This is no one's fault but mine, though.

So changes are in order.

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Conclusions (TL;DR)

• Swift Selection Search will still be on the Mozilla Add-ons market as normal. 😉 If there are severe bugs or small browser changes that need to be dealt with, I'll try to fix them.

• Besides that, this GitHub repository and all of my development here will enter an indefinite hiatus. I'll not be accepting pull requests (sorry!) nor handle new issues for the foreseeable future. I'll try to make that clear in the readme and in issue templates. The issue you are reading now will be pinned for clarity too.

• I'll change the addon description to note the current hiatus and what that means for its support. I've uploaded a new version (3.47.3) with a small fix and changes for the text in the options page too. I've taken down the donation link since I won't be working on SSS. (Again, thank you so much to the people that donated before!)

• I encourage people to fork SSS (or create a new repo), work on it, and publish it as your own improved addon if you wish. The license for SSS is MIT, which is a very permissive license. With it you can create your own version of SSS and change/add/remove whatever you want, as long as you credit the original work.

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I'm sorry if this is disappointing and especially if your feature suggestion or problem wasn't addressed. I hope you understand my need for these changes and I also hope that the current version of SSS is good enough for the foreseeable future.

Cheers!
Daniel

[Gitoffthelawn]

Hi Daniel!

Let me enthusiastically be the first to say thank you for all your hard work, kindness, and friendship over the years. I have nothing but fondness for you, as well as much gratitude.

I just read every word you wrote, and I think you expressed yourself wonderfully and thoughtfully.

I want to return your thoughtfulness and respond in more detail after I spend a little more time thinking about what you wrote.

The only thing I will mention right now is your decision to remove your donations page. Given the amount of time and energy you have placed into this exceptional project, I personally see no ethical problem continuing to accept donations, as long as its clear to donors that you may not be doing much/any more work.

Also, if people want to get together and get you a "farewell" gift, I am happy to organize that endeavor as well as contribute. Is there any special gift you would like?

Personally, I hope your "indefinite hiatus" is not an "infinite hiatus" and that sometime in the future you find enjoyment contributing to your creation in some other role... a role in which you truly enjoy and that brings you happiness and joy. :)

[CanisLupus]

Hi @Gitoffthelawn!

Awww, thank you! ❤ I have always enjoyed our interactions over the years and I really appreciate your support and kind words every time. :) Really, THANKS. I clearly remember that you were the first contributor to this repository by fixing my localized link to Mozilla Add-ons hahah. That was quite a while ago!

About the donations, I feel much more at ease by just removing the link. ;) It removes the expectation that some people would have of my continuous support, which I'd understand, and so eases the burden a bit more. Although there are kind souls that would still donate, I'd rather have the peace of mind.

And no gifts needed. :) I thank you for the gesture, though. ☺ You have a big heart! You people being awesome is more than gift enough. You all helped make SSS what it is, including its Mount Everest of settings. 😂

Finding enjoyment is a very important part of programming, but also really of anything. I have no future plans right now but I know that I need to stay away from SSS for at least A Big While™. Regardless, making something that I know is useful for so many people (well, at the tiny scale of 10k) has been a great experience. ;)

[markran]

I just want to say thanks for all the work you've done creating this amazing add-on! It's quite literally essential to my web experience. So much so, that it now frustrates me that Windows doesn't have something similar built-in to the OS. :-)

I completely understand about the need to make "life choices" so no worries there and as someone who did donate, I have no regrets at all. SSS is incredibly flexible, does everything I want and is far, far beyond 'feature complete'. Although Mozilla does a decent job of not breaking popular add-ons (at least after the web ext debacle), it does sometimes happen so I greatly appreciate your willingness to take a look at future issues which might break the existing functionality of SSS.

Be well!

[AntonioRedondo]

Well, I cannot use Firefox without your add-on! 😎 Guess which add-on is the first to be added every time I install Firefox in some computer. 😉

I'm really grateful for the tons of energy, effort and time you've devoted to this add-on, essential to have a quick searching experience on Firefox. And I totally understand why you're stopping the development of it.

Thankfully because of the quality gained in the exhaustive development the add-on will carry on working for a long time regardless of the many API changes that probably will happen.

Thank you very much! 💝

[CanisLupus]

Thank you so much, @markran and @AntonioRedondo, for your kind words and for understanding. 🙏❤ :)

And I'm always happy to hear that SSS is useful! 😄

[Slevest]

Thank you for SSS this is the best thing I've seen in Firefox!

[masvil]

Here to say thank you @CanisLupus and all contributors for having developed this great peace of software. I'm also looking for a way to donate without any expectation for a future development, may I?

[CanisLupus]

Hi @masvil, you are welcome! Thank you for your words and for wanting to donate. :)

I guess I can provide a link in the coziness of this issue, where I'm sure everyone who sees it knows what the current situation is. Here. It's the same one I used previously on the addon's page, with text changed to match. :) Thanks again! ❤

[omarb737]

Bro I loved your work, this is a very useful mozilla extension, and just want to thank you for your contribution. I wish you left us with some sort of way to donate as I do actually donate to app developers for life saving programs such as this. Thanks bro ❤

[CanisLupus]

@omarb737 Thanks so much! ❤️ I'm glad that SSS's usefulness is still going strong 😁

I appreciate the intention to donate! :) I left a link in my last message here after a similar request. Just know that it's not expected in any way, and if your money is more valuable literally anywhere else please use it there instead. :)