Announcements (update 2024-08-22) #21
Replies: 13 comments 27 replies
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Chasing Santa? Glad to hear you're ok. |
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AHK++ 2.6.0 to be released by 2021-01-18I'm setting a deadline so that I finally start making progress. I'm feeling much better and I've been working to integrate recent changes to AHK+ into AHK++. Expect a release by the end of Monday 😄 |
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Released! Thanks for your patience, looking forward to the next one! |
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Hi everyone, posting a new comment in case edits don't send notifications! TLDR, thank you all, I'm coming back to help in any way I can :) 2022-06-02: Coming backHi everybody, First off, I want to thank everyone for continuing to use this extension, leave feedback on it, and help each other out. It's been amazing to see community members learning from each other in my absence. I have read every issue and comment and I look forward to contributing more in the future. Thank you very much. There is clearly demand for this project: There are now 37 open issues, 49 stars, and 24,569 downloads! These are amazing statistics that I never dared imagine. Most of all, I'm extremely proud of 100% 5-star rating from 9 independent reviewers. This blows my mind and I cannot in any way take credit for the quality of this extension. All I did was fix a few bugs in the original I've decided to return to maintaining this project. There are problems to solve, and ways to make this extension even better. I don't have solid plans yet, but I have certainly been reading feedback and adjusting my priorities accordingly. AHK is a very unique language, tailored obviously to desktop automation and not so much to the high-computation software engineering that I've been used to. I'm going to continue listening to the community and prioritizing issues important to all of us. At the highest level, my goal is simple: improve developer productivity through enhanced code navigation, syntax highlighting, formatting, and better IntelliSense. Also, with the stability of AHK v2, I'll be looking closely at adding support for that once I'm content with the support for AHK v1. Prioritization here, as everywhere, will depend on community demand. Thank you once again for your patience and continued engagement with this project. I look forward to serving you. Best, Mark Wiemer |
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2022-06-11: I'm still here, and your patience is appreciated!Wow. Who knew there would be so much to learn! I'm devoted to figuring things out before I start hacking away at fixing bugs. Unfortunately this will mean very few changes to this project in the short term, but hopefully it will result in an amazing product in the long term. After opening #123, I realized there was so much existing software that I hadn't researched yet. After some planning, there seems to be a pretty clear path towards the next release. The next release will focus on an improved syntax highlighter. The logic used to create this highlighter should be easy to transfer into an improved, customizable formatter via a Prettier plugin. Since all of this work will be done from scratch in pure functions, it should be very easy to write via test-driven development, allowing me to be very confident in releases and quickly bugs if they ever appear. Looking at long-term maintenance, I've opened the I've also just started a GitHub project: AutoHotkey Plus Plus, and GitHub has recently released a "new project experience" that's quite different from the workflow I'm used to at Microsoft, but on first glance it looks fantastic. In summary, I'm happier than ever about the potential of this project. It'll take some time before real change occurs. I'm building a foundation now that will support rapid development for years to come. And I'm having a lot of fun :) |
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First of all, I'd like to say that I'm glad someone is still maintaining a comprehensive AutoHotkey extension for VS Code. Like probably most VS Code users looking for AutoHotkey support, I didn't even realize stef-levesque's original had stopped being developed, never mind being superseded by another (cweijan's). And while it seems your project is the successor to cweijan's, as of this writing it is "105 commits ahead, 20 commits behind" that one. I'm a newbie to both Git and GitHub, and I don't know whether those 20 commits address anything that would be helpful to address in your project. I wonder if there is any way to rejigger things such that your project doesn't show as being any commits at all behind. Another small thing, which might also be due to my GitHub ignorance:
That link is broken. Are you referring to the GitHub project that I'm writing this in now? Finally, I am kind of surprised that you were so gung-ho on this project at all, given
That was apparently from about a year ago. How much are you using AHK yourself these days? And if you weren't actively using AHK back then, what made you decide to put so much energy into an extension for working with AHK? Best regards, thanks for what you've already done, and I hope this project continues to both evolve into something even better and provide you with an enjoyable, educational, and rewarding experience. |
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Hey @jkyeung, thanks for writing. Regarding the "20 commits behind", I manually merged those changes with custom commits, see the details of #27. I may open an issue to remove that message for clarity, but I promise the project is currently up-to-date with AutoHotkey Plus :) I'm still not using AHK myself, honestly. The core appeal of this project is and always has been the opportunity to write a VS Code language extension that people would actually use. VS Code has always been my favorite IDE, and compilers are one of my favorite topics to study. A language extension is the best of both worlds, but nearly all languages are well-supported by now. AHK is a rare area of opportunity, and when I first got into AHK, @cweijan had just announced he would no longer be supporting his fork. The timing was perfect! With the stability of AHK v2 and my recent contacts with the creator, I'm looking forward to writing my own scripts in the near future :) Thanks for the kind words. This project has been very rewarding already. I've learned so much and had great support from folks like you, @fade2gray, and many others. I'm glad I could be of service <3 |
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Oh, and regarding the GitHub project, I guess it's only visible to contributors to the repo. It's separate from the codebase we're looking at now, but it's a way to manage work across multiple codebases, and generally keep users aware of how work is progressing. See About GitHub projects (beta) for more info :) |
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@jkyeung , I've made the GitHub project public :) |
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Thanks for the update @mark-wiemer!🙏 |
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I appreciate the kind words :) VS Code extensions are a great way to build something that others will use -- 70%+ of all coders use VS Code! I've recently added |
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@ewerybody , you can also check out https://github.com/mark-wiemer/vscode-helloworld, which is me basically starting over to see how the core logic of a VS Code extension works :) |
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Thanks so much 🙏 Sadly I don't have much time atm besides work. But I'm really looking forward to spend some on it!! |
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2022-07-18: 🚂 Becoming the little engine😔 First off, sorry about v2.8.3 and #153. I should've caught that. v2.8.5-rc.1 should fix the issue, and I appreciate your patience and quick reports here. 🧪 To ensure future releases are stable, I'm starting a pre-release system. Significant changes that may not be fully tested will be released as pre-releases for a few weeks to get user feedback. I'm working on updating documentation and bug templates accordingly. Your input is super valuable here: with 25,000+ users, every bug is critical! You can install and discuss the first pre-release right now! 🙏 Big shout out to @kyklish, who has opened several PRs in the past week! @fade2gray remains a great supporter as well, along with @RaptorX and @ewerybody 🙂 I'm so glad I can work with folks like you all, and if I didn't mention you by name, please know it's only because that list would be way too long!! 🔮 Development has been slow, but plans remain big. As I get used to AHK grammar and the bumps that come with a niche language (it's my first language built specifically for Windows and no other platform), I'm getting more confident pushing changes to the codebase. #123 is still high on the list, but #96 is growing as well. Engineering hygiene improvements have drastically improved my happiness when working with the codebase, which should mean more features faster! 👋 Thanks again for your support, input, feedback, and contributions. This project has already exceeded my wildest dreams, and I'm so happy to be dreaming even wilder than I ever imagined. |
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2022-08-09: 👀 I'm still here, just quieter👀 As always, I'm reviewing new issues and trying to respond to PRs when I have time. ⌛ Unfortunately, work has been busier than usual and I also have a lot of personal commitments and other hobbies I'm pursuing. So this hasn't been top priority for me and probably won't be for a few weeks. One thing I've learned this year is that I hate setting deadlines for my personal projects. That just makes it feel like work. So I'm not promising anything, but I remain interested in this and I'll be back when I find time, probably before the end of the month. 👋 That's all for this update! Just wanted to explain why there are so many PRs that haven't been reviewed in a while. We'll get there with time :) |
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2022-09-24: 😁 Merging with AutoHotkey Plus
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2022-12-06: Cancelling merge and taking Christmas breakHi folks, Weijan has decided to cancel the merge with AutoHotkey Plus for now. We may discuss more later, but my primary goal is creating at least one extension that provides a quality user experience. Once that's done, Weijan and I can hammer out the engineering side of things and update one extension moving forward. For now, I'll continue work on AHK++ while monitoring bug reports and other updates to AHK+. I've created and prioritized a new project that tracks issues in both extensions. You can also view it in the Projects tab of either repo. There are some easy wins that I found, some duplicate issues, some that have been fixed, and plenty more that needed categorization. I'm feeling a lot better now with an organized backlog and a way to keep things in order, so hopefully progress is more consistent in the long run! That being said, I'll be going on Christmas break on Saturday and not returning to this project until January 09. I may check GitHub every so often but I'll be unable to write code during this time, so don't expect updates! I do hope to get v3.2.0 out before I leave, but, as always, no promises. Here's to a great 2023! |
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Happy hols. It's a bit grim over in the UK at the moment with the current cost of living crisis and not expected to improve much in the foreseeable future. |
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Quick update: I've been having some issues with my AHK Forums account, so I'm currently active on a new account with username |
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Thank you for the effort. I guess I am a little confused who you reached out to. Typically, the global pinned thread is where you go to get help with such an issue. https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5008 |
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Thanks! I used the "Contact Us" button a few times, never got a response |
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2024-06-08: Proposed expansion to an extension packHi everyone, I've recently learned how stupidly easy it is to bundle multiple VS Code extensions into one pack and publish that. You'll see AutoHotkey Extension Pack is just that: a bundle of this extension, thqby's v2 support, and zero-plusplus's debugger. In my book, if I can work with these other two extensions to remove conflicts between all three extensions in this pack, we have an easy win on our hands. I can continue fixing up bugs for v1 support for those who still need it via AHK++, and I can contribute new features to both other extensions without having to fully understand and maintain every line of code they work on. The alternative, of course, is basically copy-pasting the other extensions into this one (with attribution, of course!). This obviously duplicates work but also requires me to fully understand, document, and fix issues with all three extensions simultaneously. I have some free time, but not a ton, and this seems like a bit of a waste of time. And the other authors are better equipped to handle their respective codebases anyway. What do you all think--is an extension pack the right way to go? Are there concerns with this approach vs just bundling all the code into one big extension? Let me know your thoughts :) Also, hi, I'm back. It's been a busy year, to say the least, but things are finally calm for me. Those curious can find what I've been up to at https://markwiemer.medium.com :) |
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Yes, I understand that you respect my intentions. 😄 I wrote my thoughts about your question (?) and it may have seemed a bit strongly worded. My apologies... Thank you for your response. I will return to my work. 👍 |
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For some reason this issue has been rehashed, so I'm posting a link to that reply here, where the response was quicker before. If you think that because copy-paste is not allowed, forking is okay, then this problem will never be solved. I've expressed a number of concerns here besides the extension pack, haven't I?
Is it a sign of respect for me that you try to break the above promise? I do not believe you think that way. I believe this is what complicates matters. However, I feel that all the above messages that I have taken the time to convey are being ignored, so please don't do that. 🥹 |
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@zero-plusplus - He is not trying to break his promise and he is not ignoring anything you've said. I've responded in greater detail on your repo. |
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@zero-plusplus, I will not break the promise. I'm not trying to, and it saddens me that you say I am. I know asking to fork your repo goes against what I said 4 weeks ago, and I'm sorry for the confusion. I only asked about a fork as I thought that would resolve your concerns about folks thinking you were responsible for a product someone else published. To be clear here, I will not fork your repo without your explicit permission. I've also responded in greater detail in the original thread. |
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I realized that I had made the problem bigger due to my misunderstanding, so I have put my apology on here. Mark was just visiting me in a polite manner, but my misunderstanding of the license caused me to take the message the wrong way, as if he was trying to take advantage of my activity, which is what caused this. Thus, I was overly defensive of my extension. I apologize for any offense my misunderstanding have caused to Mark and all who have seen my messages thus far. |
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Well, I’m glad that was resolved amicably - not sure that I fully understood the concerns though, not that I'm asking for a deeper explanation.😄 |
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Yes, it was resolved with no problem. 😄 Sorry for the trouble. |
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2024-08-10: Moving forwardAlright, time has passed and little has changed in the codebase. But I've been learning. There is finally a clear path to creating a "best" solution for AHK devs that use both v1 and v2, and I believe that's an extension pack with thqby's AutoHotkey v2 Language Support extension and improvements to the debuggers (both for v1 and v2) written by us. If you've used zero-plusplus's debugger, you'll wonder why I'm not including it: the simple answer is that zero-plusplus has asked me not to include that debugger, and I respect that. However, there is a lot of learning to be done:
As always, I remain optimistic about the future. I still love coding and I still love this project, and time seems to be a bit more on my side. I hit a major work milestone yesterday and will celebrate by coding today! 😆 Thanks again for all your patience and support, it's been so great to work on this project through the years and chat with you all :) |
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(2024-08-22: Announcements are now posted in their own discussions in the announcements category)
2024-08-10: Moving forward
Alright, time has passed and little has changed in the codebase. But I've been learning. There is finally a clear path to creating a "best" solution for AHK devs that use both v1 and v2, and I believe that's an extension pack with thqby's AutoHotkey v2 Language Support extension and improvements to the debuggers (both for v1 and v2) written by us. If you've used zero-plusplus's debugger, you'll wonder why I'm not including it: the simple answer is that zero-plusplus has asked me not to include that debugger, and I respect that.
However, there is a lot of learning to be done:
languages.*API. Ref Language Server Extension Guide for a brief comparison. This is a radical change and although I started hello-lsp a year ago, I'll have to come back to it now and chip away.As always, I remain optimistic about the future. I still love coding and I still love this project, and time seems to be a bit more on my side. I hit a major work milestone yesterday and will celebrate by coding today! 😆 Thanks again for all your patience and support, it's been so great to work on this project through the years and chat with you all :)
2024-06-08: Proposed expansion to an extension pack
Hi everyone, I've recently learned how stupidly easy it is to bundle multiple VS Code extensions into one pack and publish that. You'll see AutoHotkey Extension Pack is just that: a bundle of this extension, thqby's v2 support, and zero-plusplus's debugger. In my book, if I can work with these other two extensions to remove conflicts between all three extensions in this pack, we have an easy win on our hands. I can continue fixing up bugs for v1 support for those who still need it via AHK++, and I can contribute new features to both other extensions without having to fully understand and maintain every line of code they work on.
The alternative, of course, is basically copy-pasting the other extensions into this one (with attribution, of course!). This obviously duplicates work but also requires me to fully understand, document, and fix issues with all three extensions simultaneously. I have some free time, but not a ton, and this seems like a bit of a waste of time. And the other authors are better equipped to handle their respective codebases anyway.
What do you all think--is an extension pack the right way to go? Are there concerns with this approach vs just bundling all the code into one big extension? Let me know your thoughts :)
Also, hi, I'm back. It's been a busy year, to say the least, but things are finally calm for me. Those curious can find what I've been up to at https://markwiemer.medium.com :)
2023-02-07: AHK v2 preparation
Hi everyone, I'm sure you've all noticed that AutoHotkey v2 is officially released! With this release and the popularity of #96, I'll be prioritizing AHK v2 support right away! I know I'm a month late on this announcement, but I should have more time later this month to really start coding and getting support ready. I've already starred repos that have basic support, and I look forward to learning v2 syntax along with everyone else :)
Looking forward to this major new work. Thanks again everyone for all your support on this project, whether it's reporting bugs, writing code, suggesting workarounds, or asking for clarity. I'm so proud we've been able to build an awesome tool together.
2022-12-06: Cancelling merge and taking Christmas break
Hi folks, Weijan has decided to cancel the merge with AutoHotkey Plus for now. We may discuss more later, but my primary goal is creating at least one extension that provides a quality user experience. Once that's done, Weijan and I can hammer out the engineering side of things and update one extension moving forward. For now, I'll continue work on AHK++ while monitoring bug reports and other updates to AHK+.
I've created and prioritized a new project that tracks issues in both extensions. You can also view it in the Projects tab of either repo. There are some easy wins that I found, some duplicate issues, some that have been fixed, and plenty more that needed categorization. I'm feeling a lot better now with an organized backlog and a way to keep things in order, so hopefully progress is more consistent in the long run!
That being said, I'll be going on Christmas break on Saturday and not returning to this project until January 09. I may check GitHub every so often but I'll be unable to write code during this time, so don't expect updates! I do hope to get v3.2.0 out before I leave, but, as always, no promises.
Here's to a great 2023!
2022-11-21: Completing merge with AutoHotkey Plus
AutoHotkey Plus now has near-identical code to this repo! The only significant difference is the README and code that's been added since 2022-11-21. I'll be working on testing everything and hopefully AutoHotkey Plus 3.0 will come soon with feature parity to this repo!
Once AHK Plus is updated, this repo will be archived. All issues will be transferred to a single project and bugfixes will be added to the original AHK Plus repo.
We may repurpose this repo in the future to be an experimentation / pre-release repo, but in the short term it's best to keep things simple and stick with the "original" AHK Plus :)
Changes should be complete within a week!
2022-09-24: 😁 Merging with AutoHotkey Plus
cweijanhas returned to maintaining https://github.com/cweijan/vscode-autohotkey, so in the long run we'll be merging all code changes into his original project. Read more at #242 :)2022-08-09: 👀 I'm still here, just quieter
👀 As always, I'm reviewing new issues and trying to respond to PRs when I have time.
⌛ Unfortunately, work has been busier than usual and I also have a lot of personal commitments and other hobbies I'm pursuing. So this hasn't been top priority for me and probably won't be for a few weeks. One thing I've learned this year is that I hate setting deadlines for my personal projects. That just makes it feel like work. So I'm not promising anything, but I remain interested in this and I'll be back when I find time, probably before the end of the month.
👋 That's all for this update! Just wanted to explain why there are so many PRs that haven't been reviewed in a while. We'll get there with time :)
2022-07-18: 🚂 Becoming the little engine
😔 First off, sorry about v2.8.3 and #153. I should've caught that. v2.8.5-rc.1 should fix the issue, and I appreciate your patience and quick reports here.
🧪 To ensure future releases are stable, I'm starting a pre-release system. Significant changes that may not be fully tested will be released as pre-releases for a few weeks to get user feedback. I'm working on updating documentation and bug templates accordingly. Your input is super valuable here: with 25,000+ users, every bug is critical! You can install and discuss the first pre-release right now!
🙏 Big shout out to @kyklish, who has opened several PRs in the past week! @fade2gray remains a great supporter as well, along with @RaptorX and @ewerybody 🙂 I'm so glad I can work with folks like you all, and if I didn't mention you by name, please know it's only because that list would be way too long!!
🔮 Development has been slow, but plans remain big. As I get used to AHK grammar and the bumps that come with a niche language (it's my first language built specifically for Windows and no other platform), I'm getting more confident pushing changes to the codebase. #123 is still high on the list, but #96 is growing as well. Engineering hygiene improvements have drastically improved my happiness when working with the codebase, which should mean more features faster!
👋 Thanks again for your support, input, feedback, and contributions. This project has already exceeded my wildest dreams, and I'm so happy to be dreaming even wilder than I ever imagined.
2022-06-11: I'm still here, and your patience is appreciated!
Wow. Who knew there would be so much to learn! I'm devoted to figuring things out before I start hacking away at fixing bugs. Unfortunately this will mean very few changes to this project in the short term, but hopefully it will result in an amazing product in the long term. After opening #123, I realized there was so much existing software that I hadn't researched yet. After some planning, there seems to be a pretty clear path towards the next release.
The next release will focus on an improved syntax highlighter. The logic used to create this highlighter should be easy to transfer into an improved, customizable formatter via a Prettier plugin. Since all of this work will be done from scratch in pure functions, it should be very easy to write via test-driven development, allowing me to be very confident in releases and quickly bugs if they ever appear.
Looking at long-term maintenance, I've opened the
hygienelabel for issues that will track internal work to make it easier to develop the codebase. That work will remain low priority until I start tearing my hair out, don't worry :) But work in this area will make it easier for future developers (like you!) to contribute to the project and better understand how everything works.I've also just started a GitHub project: AutoHotkey Plus Plus, and GitHub has recently released a "new project experience" that's quite different from the workflow I'm used to at Microsoft, but on first glance it looks fantastic.
In summary, I'm happier than ever about the potential of this project. It'll take some time before real change occurs. I'm building a foundation now that will support rapid development for years to come. And I'm having a lot of fun :)
2022-06-02: Coming back
Hi everybody,
First off, I want to thank everyone for continuing to use this extension, leave feedback on it, and help each other out. It's been amazing to see community members learning from each other in my absence. I have read every issue and comment and I look forward to contributing more in the future. Thank you very much.
There is clearly demand for this project: There are now 37 open issues, 49 stars, and 24,569 downloads! These are amazing statistics that I never dared imagine. Most of all, I'm extremely proud of 100% 5-star rating from 9 independent reviewers. This blows my mind and I cannot in any way take credit for the quality of this extension. All I did was fix a few bugs in the original
autohotkey-plusbycweijan.cweijanand the rest of the community have made the extension as amazing as it is today.I've decided to return to maintaining this project. There are problems to solve, and ways to make this extension even better. I don't have solid plans yet, but I have certainly been reading feedback and adjusting my priorities accordingly. AHK is a very unique language, tailored obviously to desktop automation and not so much to the high-computation software engineering that I've been used to. I'm going to continue listening to the community and prioritizing issues important to all of us.
At the highest level, my goal is simple: improve developer productivity through enhanced code navigation, syntax highlighting, formatting, and better IntelliSense.
Also, with the stability of AHK v2, I'll be looking closely at adding support for that once I'm content with the support for AHK v1. Prioritization here, as everywhere, will depend on community demand.
Thank you once again for your patience and continued engagement with this project. I look forward to serving you.
Best,
Mark Wiemer
2021-05-30: Switching directions (but continuing the project)
Hi everyone,
I'm going to miss most of this milestone. Professional and personal work has taken up a lot of time recently, and I've found myself out of time or exhausted whenever I've wanted to work on this project. I'm working to make more time for this project because I still believe in its potential, and I'm honored that it has over 4,000 users. I want to create a great experience for each of you :)
I'll be switching directions for a bit. I haven't actually written any AHK scripts that I use, so it's been hard for me to identify pain points with the extension. I'm going to be focusing on writing AHK and using this extension like the rest of you, and hopefully that encourages me to develop the project since I'll see the benefits as well. Additionally, it should empower me to understand more specifically what's going wrong and why, speeding up releases.
As always, I appreciate your patience and support. Thank you :)
2023-01-03: January slowdown
Hi everyone, sorry for the radio silence. I had a major deadline December 18th, then I proceeded to get a minor concussion on the 24th. All of this while travelling for Christmas. I'm home now, feeling much better, and hopefully I'll be able to review PRs, issues, and discussions soon.
Thanks everyone for your continued willingness to help. I know I haven't followed through on my end of the bargain very well, but my schedule is looking pretty empty for January. Once I'm back at full health, I look forward to developing this project!
Thanks again :)
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