I have no idea what the reasoning is behind the following post but David Perel seems to think that WooThemes needs to be given more credit for their contribution to WordPress 3.0 in the form of their WooNav system. If we rewind back to when the announcement was made that WordPress would finally have a kick ass menu management system and WooNav was going to be the basis for it, the community as well as sites outside of the community roared with cheers and WooThemes definitely got their credit where credit was do. In fact, many authors writing posts about the new menu system gave thanks to Woo for allowing it to be integrated into WordPress.
John O’ Nolan who is really starting to help out with the UX group with Jane Wells has come out with the following post that makes a few things clear regarding credit. In response to Davids post, Adii comes out with a response that is somewhat neutral.
Here is what I don’t understand. What makes ones contributions to WordPress any different or held any higher than someone elses? WordPress is a software project that is larger than the sum of its parts. Contributions are welcomed and many are thankful for those contributions but really, despite WordPress.org giving props to all of those who contributed to the major release as well as major security vulnerabilities, WordPress would be able to get along just fine without giving credit to anyone. After all, it’s about making the software better for everyone, right? I’m thankful for those that contribute to WordPress but if you want me to put a giant banner on my site because I’m using some new feature in WordPress that you had a hand in making, you can shove it.
I’m still grateful that WooThemes gracefully allowed WooNav to be the framework for the new menu management system despite the extensive reworking of the system to the point where there is almost nothing left of the original. I will always refer to WooNav being the foundation behind the menu system meaning WooThemes will get credit now and will get credit in the future but I’m not going to offer a golden throne because of it.
I think John’s closing line sums it all up pretty well.
In summary… there is no BS here.
Was the menu system in WordPress 3.0 inspired by WooNav? Of course. Everybody knows that.
Is the code in the menu system in WordPress 3.0 the same code that was in WooNav? Not at all. It was completely rewritten from the ground up. Pretty much nothing remains of the original WooNav codebase. The code, data structure and UI was all entirely redone.
John O’Nolan was being generous when he said 90% of the code was rewritten. I would say 99% of the code is more accurate. There might be some function names that are the same, but everything else (including the code in those functions) is completely new.
I’m not sure how lavish credit can be heaped on Woo for the contribution considering what they contributed ended up being rewritten to the point that it is an entirely new piece of code. I think they have received a sufficient amount of credit for inspiring the functionality. But they shouldn’t get credit for the code, because it’s not the same code anymore.