I’ve been messing about with an open source project: Timesheet.php and have found it pretty useful, keeping track of my time for billing purposes. I always meant to write a nifty little app like this for me, so it was quite handy that I stumbled across it. However, whilst it is useful, there are, like everything, a few bugs that need to be ironed out and a couple of improvements I would like to see implemented.

Normally I don’t think this would be a problem, fix the bugs, send a patch. However, this project appears to be dead. I’ve done a rigorous search on the web for anything relating to this project, finding quite a few places it appears:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/timesheet/
• http://www.ohloh.net/projects/5548
• http://freshmeat.net/projects/timesheet.php/
• http://code.google.com/p/timesheetphp/

and finally (or firstly becuase it’s linked from the bottom of every Timesheet.php page)

• http://www.advancen.com/products/timesheet.html

I’ve tried to get in touch with the developers, I’ve sent emails to the mailing lists and forums asking if this project was still alive, but no response from anyone in charge - a couple of emails from people, like me think it’s a good project and would like to see it developed further, but aren’t sure if it is dead or not.

Now here’s the thing. Although I’m pretty rushed out I would quite happily take this project on, on the side, to fix the bugs, implement some amendments and generally to see how far it can be developed. I’ve been emailing with Gregor from the Phex team who is someone how would like to see this developed, and he told me that it is possible to take over a dead project on Sourceforge. However, I’m not entirely sure this is the best route for this project. Primarily because it appears to be an in-house development for a company and I’m not sure what the fall back would be if I just waltzed up and took it away from them. I know it’s Open Source so technically possible, but it doesn’t really seem polite. Also, what if this project isn’t really dead, just a little bit slow in updates?

Like I say, I’m pretty busy at the moment, so no real time to spend on it anyway right now, but I’ll have a mull over the “shall I take over or shall I fork” question for a little bit longer.

If anyone out there has had similar problems, please let me know!
Cheers
Rob

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