[ic] What has happened to Interchange support?

[M Heins]

Quoting Davideth (Davideth at whojamadoogle.com):
> It was in 2001 that I first started using interchange and
> appreciated the multitude of replies to questions and queries for
> assistance. However, it has been noticeable to me that in the past
> year or so that responses have been fewer, not only for my posts but
> others as well. Have the ones who long supported this amazing
> e-commerce product just left and gone on to other products or
> concerns? Or possibly some other concerns?
> 
> Either way, it saddens me that it does not appear to be the
> flourishing community that used to be present.
> 
> One of the side effects is that I see fewer new independent sites
> that use Interchange. Or perhaps I have just missed seeing them. I
> do see some sites that have been developed by EndPoint and a few
> others, but it is the independent sites that seem to have reduced
> presence?

Independent sites have reduced presence everywhere. Amazon, eBay, and
others have coopted the small merchant.

To be honest, Interchange is no longer best of breed. While it is a
great tool for glue logic behind stores, more and more is being pushed
to the client and we don't have the tools that integrate well with that.

It is possible that a great developer with lots of energy could change
that to some degree, but people who have the time and energy to do
that type of pro-bono development are few and far between. Interchange
really only happened when it did by a combination of a few people who
had the time and inclination to ride the Internet wave and produce it.
I spent thousands of hours producing the core of Interchange, and a
couple of individuals and companies joined after a while. But
eventually people want to ring the cash register, and people move on
to different interests.

So Interchange is mostly legacy at this point. That is OK. If someone
wanted to redesign it to use some client-based JS architectures, and
to be deployed with one or more of the container deployment platforms,
it could conceivably flourish again. But it would require the dedicated
efforts of a smart and energetic developer. Those are hard to find for
free.

-- 
My children didn't have my advantages; I was born into
abject poverty. -- Kirk Douglas