Announcement: Timefold halts active development of Beta version of Python Solver

[triceo]

Hi everyone,

As of today, Timefold is halting active development on the Beta version of our Python Solver.

This tough decision comes after careful consideration of its adoption and maintenance demands. The Python Solver did not meet our quality standards and the effort to match its performance and features with Open Source Java Solver is substantial.

This decision enables us to fully focus on the continued development of our Open Source Java solver and our PlanningAI REST services built on top of it.

We want to sincerely thank all contributors and users who have supported the Python version. Whether that was reporting bugs or implementing quickstarts, your involvement meant a lot to us. If anyone is interested in continuing development of the Python Solver, we’re happy to provide repository access and answer your questions.

What happens now?

• All relevant code for the Python Solver moved to a separate repository under the Apache License. This also includes the quickstarts and a copy of their documentation.
• While Timefold will not release new features or bug fixes for the Python Solver, we will guide community contributors who wish to do so.
• Timefold will double down on the Open Source Java Solver. If you're considering a migration to the Java version for improved performance and feature set, we encourage you to join our discussion forum.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to open a discussion on the Timefold Solver GitHub. We appreciate your understanding and ongoing support of the project.

— The Timefold Team

[blackopsrepl]

I would be glad to maintain / lead community effort on this. Priority: resolving the performance gap documented in PR 831 of the timefold-quickstarts repo.

[blackopsrepl]

Hello Geoffrey,

I think a video call would be best as an initial overview of the existing roadmap, as well as for some general advice - including build requirements. I've never run Timefold as "first class", local code - just as an imported package. I'm sure I would eventually make it work, but maybe you already know where to shed light for me.

How do you prefer we schedule the video call?

[triceo]

@blackopsrepl I'll reach out privately and we'll discuss the necessary details.

[majube]

Very sad to hear this, I was about to start building an internal service using this API. I guess I'll see if I can get the rest of the team to swallow Java.

[triceo]

@majube Java gets a bad rep largely on account of how things worked in the 2000s. If you're building a web service, look into Quarkus and start with a modern version of the JDK - our quickstarts show you how. I think you'll find that modern Java development is actually quite great.

[majube]

@triceo I agree, I actually did an implementation based on the quickstarts at my previous company after seeing your presentation at the BrnoJUG a while ago, even though I hadn't touched Java in a decade - it's just that in my current company we're a small team and aren't eager to add new languages to our current stack.