johnp
sme8 is still in beta release and significant changes can still occur, which would impact upon contribs.
It has alway been policy not to develop contribs until at least a Release Candidate (RC) version of the new sme "OS" has been released.
To do otherwise would simply be a waste of effort for the developers who release contrib packages. A small change in code say from sme8 beta4 to sme8 RC1 may mean that developers have to rewrite their contrib packages.
You will be far better off to use and test sme beta releases and provide feedback, and to test sme bugs and try to resolve them and also provide feedback. Doing so will speed up the release of an sme8 RC version, and therefore speed up the release of contribs.
The development and testing of contribs will happen when sme8 RC1 is released.
Please change your attitude/opinion and take on board the large workload and development timeline associated with a new release and new contribs, and the need for the sme OS to be reasonably stable before developing contribs.
Keep in mind also that there is only a small set of developers working on the project, so they do not have spare time to waste unnecessarily rewriting contrib packages too early in the cycle.
Yes we all want sme8 & compatible contribs as soon as possible (many wanted it in 2008), but someone has to do the work, so do not expect it to happen to suit your personal timeline.
You can help speed up the process by getting even more involved.