Hi folks,

I'd like to post a little update on my own personal situation and I'll be putting that within the broader context of Trongate - if that's okay.

If I can find my passport then, tomorrow, I'm heading off to France for a week's holiday. I make no secret of the fact that I don't want to go. Frankly, I feel as though things are starting to get really exciting around here and THIS is where I'd like to be. However, somebody was good enough to pay for this trip and it would appear that the universe wants me to go on holiday right now.

So, I won't be doing any live streaming or indeed putting out any significant updates for the next week or so. While I have your attention, may I please apologise if you've sent me an email and I haven't responded yet? I currently have over 115 thousand emails in my inbox and keeping up has turned out to be borderline impossible. If you have emailed me and not heard a reply then please email me again with the subject 'Reply request ahoy!'. Just send it again! If you do that then I will find you and I will respond. Again, I apologise if you've tried to reach me and I haven't responded.

There's still a great deal of work to be done.

I would really like to:

1). Finish the new wysiwyg editor.

2). Finish the rewrite of jQuery Mobile.

3). Finish the Trongate Learning Zone training.


The third item is probably the most important of them all. However, just so you know, these are the three things that I consider to be the absolute highest priorities for Trongate at this time.

Some of you will know that I've run into some financial challenges. This is an issue that will urgently have to get fixed too - perhaps even before I can do any more in-depth work for Trongate. I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that we might be moving into a slightly slow patch as far as 'new stuff' goes. It's possible. If we do end up moving into a quiet patch (as far as working on the ecosystem goes) then it means that now is a GREAT time to start a new project using Trongate. Right now, you can start building confidently, knowing that you're going to have industry leading stability from Trongate.

However, I want you to know - above all - that the flags are flying and every day we get stronger.

When I get back, I'm going to set up a little online celebration on YouTube so that we can get together and celebrate getting 400 GitHub stars. There is absolutely no question that Trongate is on course to becoming a top ten PHP framework. People from all over the world are finally starting to say 'yes' to an alternative kind of web development that values stability above all else.

To anyone who's new here, please do NOT be put off by "make PHP great again" - which is written all over this website. Just the other day, somebody wrote to me and said something about how people may not agree with Trongate's politics. For the record, Trongate is NOT political. That statement ("make PHP great again") has been getting used for many years. I'm not the first to say it and I can assure you, Trongate is most definitely not political. I'm sure I'll think of another line to have on the site in place of 'make PHP great again'. I hope I'm being very clear about this. Trongate does not care about who you vote for and neither do I. So, look out for a new slogan coming soon.

Thank you to all of you for your help and support with this journey of ours. Within the last two or three weeks I can see that people are finally starting to come out of the woodwork. Developers who previously rejected Trongate are now giving Trongate a chance. That's great to see!

Once I have the three items (from above) done then I'll be focusing entirely on what I consider to be my final significant task, as founder. I will be unleashing Trongate's greatest asset. And do you know what that is? YOU. I look forward to the day when we can post a video on "20 ways that you can help Trongate". This is not a one man band. I'm very eager to have people involved. I'm very eager to make room for everyone. Even if you're brand new to all of this then I want you to get actively involved as much as possible. THAT is how we are going to keep the doors of web development open. Web development MATTERS. It's the greatest industry on Earth. Never bow down to the self-appointed governing bodies or the certificate peddlers or rewrite culture. What we have is good. We have to keep moving forward, boldly and unapologetically.

Finally... if the plane goes down or anything happens to me then I'd like Simon Field (username Dafa) to take over where I have left off. Domains... Speed Coding Academy... everything. In that - hopefully unlikely scenario - then the next news update you'll have will be from him and it'll be for him to find a new 'Simon'.

I'll check in with you, hopefully, in about a week.

Thank you for being here. You are so welcome. We need you and may the code be with you!

DC