[Wtr-general] Plans for Watir 2.0

[Bret Pettichord]

I plan to add the following features to Watir 2.0:

* Support for testing Mozilla, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
* Ability to run on Mac and Linux.
* Element references that won't have to be recreated whenever a
new page loads.
* Robust, intuitive support for alert boxes and other popup menus.
* Support for simplified interfaces to Watir, such as the "dynamic
watir" idea suggested by Andy Sipe.
* A new spy tool that will tell you how the object under the cursor
can be referenced with Watir.
* Window maps as an optional feature for people who like them.

These are all features that have been repeatedly requested here on
this list. They, however, will require breaking some eggs. The code
will need significant refactoring as well as removal of
inconsistencies. We'll have shims in most cases to allow backwards
compatability. I suspect that over 95% of existing scripts will
continue to work with Watir 2.0. But we'll need shims to provide some
of this support and more than 95% will be broken in the interim as the
new features are developed and the shims have yet to be put in place.

Misunderstandings about how i plan to implement these features are
also leading people to think that i'm going to stop supporting the
current mode of operation. Not true. Instead, i plan to add several
new ways of using the Watir library. I believe that these new modes
of operation will significantly add to the popularity of Watir as a
testing tool.

But because these plans are causing concerns, i am forking the code
and will be doing this work on a new branch.

If you would like to see these new features, i would appreciate hearing
from you. If you are interested in helping me with this effort, please
let me know. If you are simply satisfied with the existing tool, then
please continue to use it. No one is going to take it away from you.

If this work continues to cause distress on this list, i can create a new
list to discuss the development of Watir 2.0.


_____________________
  Bret Pettichord
  www.pettichord.com