This post is in response to the Call for Blog Posts [https://emberjs.com/blog/2018/05/02/ember-2018-roadmap-call-for-posts.html] put out there by the core team. Have a look at all the other blog posts in this series [https://github.com/zinyando/emberjs2018-posts]. Most of what I'll say has probably been said, but I think it's worth repeating to show the important things via repetition.
I'm an avid user of Ember and have been using it since the RCs of v1.0.0. I love Ember, warts and all, which means I have come to terms with many of it's issues and short comings. Having said that, I see a future that is brighter, where Ember is a major contendor and trend setter in the frontend community. What follows are the things that I think need to change to make that vision come true.
Ship the things The Ember community is one focused on conventions and shared solutions rather then many solutions without a clear winner. This makes it hard to focus on one area, since we need conventions in many areas of frontend development. Due to this difficulty I think we've gotten many hands in many things and many of those are half finished. I think we need to double down as a community and finish the things that we've started.
I'm one of those that loved the idea of Routable Components, even when the goal was moving further and further away. It was promised so long ago and I hoped for so long. When Yehuda Katz [https://mobile.twitter.com/wycats] closed that RFC, I think a bit of that dream died, but at the same time I was happy. Not because it wasn't going to happen but because there was clear communication, finally. In the same way, we might need to put some in-progress work on the backburner with clarity and divert resources to work that is more pressing.
Fix the bugs A big part of Ember is the router, but that is probably also one of the messiest parts with lots of cruft due to the churn in the earliest days of Ember. There has been much work in the last couple of years (thanks Trent Willis [https://mobile.twitter.com/trentmwillis] and others!) to clean up and document more of the router code, but this part is still very brittle [https://github.com/emberjs/ember.js/labels/Query%20Params]. Almost every app that I have built using Ember has used the URL in a major way for users of the apps.
One of the biggest things when new users come in is to run into these bugs that have been open for a while, and it's not the most encouraging thing when you want to build something on top of this big framework.
Focus on longterm vision Many have spoken about marketing, vision and brand, but I think it's worth repeating that it's super important. For Ember to grow we need a long term vision that needs to grow as the wider community grows. We made some early bets that have worked out well, and we need to keep doing that in the technical sphere, but we also need to do that for the image of the framework. We don't have the backing and resources of the big companies that React and Angular have, so we must be more focused.
Starting with a marketing team, which should be responsible for branding, the main website and promoting the framework on social media.
I think this is also the place to hone what Ember is. I really like the idea of Ember as a Component-Service Framework [https://medium.com/@pzuraq/emberjs-2018-ember-as-a-component-service-framework-2e49492734f1] as proposed by @pzuraq [https://mobile.twitter.com/pzuraq]. Many have a view of Ember as MVC, and I think that is hurting more then helping when other frameworks put themselves forward as component based.
https://mobile.twitter.com/pzuraq
I ❤️ Ember Just the fact that we can learn from others and do so actively - take this whole "call for blog posts" initiative - really gives me hope in Ember's future. I know that the core team cares deeply about the future of Ember and this shows in their attitude. Many have said some hard things in response, and I hope those hard things cause a stir in the community for the better for Ember's future. We need more leaders to step up and organize/delegate in the right areas.
Thanks to David Baker [https://mobile.twitter.com/acorncom] for reviewing this post!