Discontinuation of Support for Angular V17 and Future Directions

[Jordan-Hall]

Discontinuation of Support for Angular V17 and Future Directions

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Hello community,

I wanted to bring to your attention that the angular-material-rail-drawer package will no longer be updated to support Angular V17 and future versions. This decision has been made after careful consideration, and I'd like to share the reasons behind it:

1. Historical Context: The need for this feature was first highlighted in an issue dating back to Nov 4, 2016. Recognizing the community's demand and the lack of progress on the official front, I took the initiative to create this package and submitted a PR on May 12, 2020. Despite the clear demand and the passage of time, the concerns and needs of the community, in my humble view, seem to have been either ignored or given a lower priority by the Angular team.

2. New Syntax: Angular V17 introduces a new syntax that, in my opinion, is not in the best interest of developers. The changes seem to complicate rather than simplify the development process, making it less intuitive and more challenging to adopt.

3. Direction of Angular: Beyond just the syntax, the overall direction in which Angular is heading raises concerns. The framework's evolution seems to be diverging from the principles that made it popular in the first place.

Options Going Forward:

1. Continue Using Older Versions: If your project relies on versions of Angular prior to V17, you can continue using the angular-material-rail-drawer package without issues.

2. Hard Fork of Angular: For those who share similar concerns about Angular's direction, one option is to consider a hard fork of Angular. This would allow the community to maintain and evolve a version of Angular that aligns more closely with our preferences and needs.

3. Seek Alternatives: There are other frameworks and libraries available that might better suit your needs. It might be worth exploring these alternatives if Angular's direction is a significant concern.

Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to the Angular team for their hard work over the years. While I have personal disagreements with some of the decisions, I deeply appreciate their dedication and contributions to the community.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

[cperezabo]

New Syntax: Angular V17 introduces a new syntax that, in my opinion, is not in the best interest of developers. The changes seem to complicate rather than simplify the development process, making it less intuitive and more challenging to adopt.

Challenging? There is an automated tool (ng g @angular/core:control-flow) that migrates the templates to the new syntax, I've used it in all my projects and it works flawlessly.
The result is less-verbose and cleaner templates, removing lots of <ng-template>, <ng-container> and allowing to keep element tags clean and shorter.
I think you took a premature decision on this.

Direction of Angular: Beyond just the syntax, the overall direction in which Angular is heading raises concerns. The framework's evolution seems to be diverging from the principles that made it popular in the first place.

Angular is not the new kid on the block anymore, it has to evolve in order to stay fresh and cool for new programmers.
Things like standalone components or the new guards have reduced the overall complexity of the framework, so what are you talking about?

[Jordan-Hall]

I'm aware of the changes and migration. Angular out of the Box with the new framework I don't care about supporting libs until they steady the ship and new authoring is completed. I know its no new kid on block been using it in production since angular 2 beta

[Jordan-Hall]

Feel free to offer to take over it. I'll add you as maintainer once proven you can have full access and transfered to u

[Jordan-Hall]

Lastly my issue is priorities been in wrong order for years. Authoring should of came first before control syntax. In fact release both of them at same time with rfc.

Take this and many issues in core angular. People and businesses needed change and always delayed delay delay. Things we don't care about bring pushed first

[Jordan-Hall]

@cperezabo This package is being moved over to a new organisation set up just to keep the Angular version updated for companies that are using it. Im helping on the new organization, but its mostly automated and there's no dedicated support for new feature and updates

[Jordan-Hall]

This should resolve your issue danielglejzner/ngx-maintenance#2