I opened the source code of TL8. It is available on Github under two separate repositories: https://github.com/kevinmerckx/tl8 and https://github.com/kevinmerckx/tl8-app.
I started TL8 as a side project almost exactly three years ago. It proved to be very useful in a few projects of mine, which was already a good achievement in itself. Furthermore, the application was downloaded by 50 different users in the past 9 months (I lost the data before that...). TL8 is an application that helps development teams translate their web application. I was expecting to get users from all over the world and that is the case! TL8 has been used in Ireland, Germany, Brazil, Poland, USA, Spain, France, Romania, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Egypt, Argentina, Syria, etc.
I based my decision of making TL8 open source on 4 key arguments:
- many developers mentioned that not being open-source was a concern to them
- some components in TL8 could be useful to the community
- it could give a second life to the project and motivate me and others to pursue its development
- my strategy to generate some revenues through donations failed (I might have been naive)
Overall, it was a positive experience: a great technical achievement and important lessons learned on the way. I will explain that further in an upcoming post.
