blog: introducing experiments

docs/blog/2023-09-02-introducing-experiments.md

@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+---
+title: Introducing Experiments
+description:
+  A look at where task is, where it's going and how we're going to get there.
+slug: task-in-2023
+authors: [pd93]
+tags: [experiments, breaking-changes, roadmap, v4]
+image: https://i.imgur.com/mErPwqL.png
+hide_table_of_contents: false
+---
+
+Lately, Task has been growing extremely quickly and I've found myself thinking a
+lot about the future of the project and how we continue to evolve and grow. I'm
+not much of a writer, but I think one of the things we could do better is to
+communicate these kinds of thoughts to the community. So, with that in mind,
+this is the first (hopefully of many) blog posts talking about Task and what
+we're up to.
+
+<!--truncate-->
+
+## :calendar: So, what have we been up to?
+
+Over the past 12 months or so, [@andreynering] (Author and maintainer of the
+project) and I ([@pd93]) have been working in our spare time to maintain and
+improve v3 of Task and we've made some amazing progress. Here are just some of
+the things we've released in that time:
+
+- An official [extension for VS Code][vscode-task].
+- Internal Tasks ([#818](https://github.com/go-task/task/pull/818)).
+- Task aliases ([#879](https://github.com/go-task/task/pull/879)).
+- Looping over tasks ([#1220](https://github.com/go-task/task/pull/1200)).
+- A series of refactors to the core codebase to make it more maintainable and
+  extensible.
+- Loads of bug fixes and improvements.
+- An integration with [Crowdin][crowdin]. Work is in progress on making our docs
+  available in **7 new languages** (Special thanks to all our translators for
+  the huge help with this!).
+- And much, much more! :sparkles:
+
+We're also working on adding some really exciting and highly requested features
+to Task such as having the ability to run remote Taskfiles
+([#1317](https://github.com/go-task/task/issues/1317)).
+
+None of this would have been possible without the [150 or so (and growing)
+contributors][contributors] to the project, numerous sponsors and a passionate
+community of users. Together we have more than doubled the number of GitHub
+stars to over 8400 :star: since the beginning of 2022 and this continues to
+accelerate. We can't thank you all enough for your help and support! :rocket:
+
+[![Star History Chart](https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=go-task/task&type=Date)](https://star-history.com/#go-task/task&Date)
+
+## What's next? :thinking_face:
+
+It's extremely motivating to see so many people using and loving Task. However,
+in this time we've also seen an increase in the number of issues and feature
+requests. In particular, issues that require some kind of breaking change to
+Task. This isn't a bad thing, but as we grow we need to be more responsible
+about how we address these changes in a way that ensures stability and
+compatibility for existing users and their Taskfiles.
+
+At this point you're probably thinking something like:
+
+> "But you use [semantic versioning][semver] - Just release a new major version
+> with your breaking changes."
+
+And you'd be right... sort of. In theory, this sounds great, but the reality is
+that we don't have the time to commit to a major overhaul of Task in one big
+bang release. This would require a colossal amount of time and coordination and
+with full time jobs and personal lives to tend to, this is a difficult
+commitment to make. Smaller, more frequent major releases are also a significant
+inconvenience for users as they have to constantly keep up-to-date with our
+breaking changes. Fortunately, there is a better way.
+
+## What's going to change? :face_with_monocle:
+
+Going forwards, breaking changes will be allowed into _minor_ versions of Task
+as "experimental features". To access these features users will need opt-in by
+enabling feature flags. This will allow us to release new features slowly and
+gather feedback from the community before making them the default behavior in a
+future major release.
+
+To prepare users for the next major release, we will maintain a list of
+[deprecated features][deprecations] and [experiements][experiments] on our docs
+website and publish information on how to migrate to the new behavior.
+
+You can read the [full breaking change proposal][breaking-change-proposal] and
+view all the [current experiments and their status][experiments-project] on
+GitHub including the [Gentle Force][gentle-force-experiment] and [Remote
+Taskfiles][remote-taskfiles-experiment] experiments.
+
+## What will happen to v2/v3 features?
+
+v2 has been [officially deprecated][deprecate-version-2-schema]. If you're still
+using a Taskfile with `version: "2"` at the top we _strongly recommend_ that you
+upgrade as soon as possible. Removing This will allow us to tidy up the codebase
+and focus on new functionality instead.
+
+When v4 is released, we will continue to support v3 for a period of time (bug
+fixes etc). However, since we are moving from a backward-compatibility model to
+a forwards-compatibility model, **v4 itself will not be backwards compatible
+with v3**.
+
+## v4 When? :eyes:
+
+:shrug: When it's ready.
+
+In all seriousness, we don't have a timeline for this yet. We'll be working on
+the most serious deficiencies of the v3 API first and regularly evaluating the
+state of the project. When we feel its in a good, stable place and we have a
+clear upgrade path for users and a number of stable experiments, we'll start to
+think about v4.
+
+## :wave: Final thoughts
+
+Task is growing fast and we're excited to see where it goes next. We hope that
+the steps we're taking to improve the project and our process will help us to
+continue to grow. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, we encourage
+you to comment on or open [issues][issues] and [discussions][discussions] on
+GitHub. Alternatively, you can join us on [Discord][discord].
+
+I plan to write more of these blog posts in the future on a variety of
+Task-related topics, so make sure to check in occasionally and see what we're up
+to!
+
+<!-- prettier-ignore-start -->
+[vscode-task]: https://github.com/go-task/vscode-task
+[crowdin]: https://crowdin.com
+[contributors]: https://github.com/go-task/task/graphs/contributors
+[semver]: https://semver.org
+[breaking-change-proposal]: https://github.com/go-task/task/discussions/1191
+[@andreynering]: https://github.com/andreynering
+[@pd93]: https://github.com/pd93
+[experiments]: https://taskfile.dev/experiments
+[deprecations]: https://taskfile.dev/deprecations
+[deprecate-version-2-schema]: https://github.com/go-task/task/issues/1197
+[issues]: https://github.com/go-task/task/issues
+[discussions]: https://github.com/go-task/task/discussions
+[discord]: https://discord.gg/6TY36E39UK
+[experiments-project]: https://github.com/orgs/go-task/projects/1
+[gentle-force-experiment]: https://github.com/go-task/task/issues/1200
+[remote-taskfiles-experiment]: https://github.com/go-task/task/issues/1317
+<!-- prettier-ignore-end -->

docs/blog/authors.yml

@@ -3,3 +3,8 @@ andreynering:
   title: Maintainer of Task
   url: https://github.com/andreynering
   image_url: https://github.com/andreynering.png
+pd93:
+  name: Pete Davison
+  title: Maintainer of Task
+  url: https://github.com/pd93
+  image_url: https://github.com/pd93.png

docs/docusaurus.config.js

@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ const getConfig = async () => {
             routeBasePath: '/',
             sidebarPath: require.resolve('./sidebars.js')
           },
-          blog: false,
+          blog: {},
           theme: {
             customCss: [
               require.resolve('./src/css/custom.css'),
@@ -155,6 +155,11 @@ const getConfig = async () => {
               position: 'left',
               label: 'API'
             },
+            {
+              to: 'blog',
+              label: 'Blog',
+              position: 'left'
+            },
             {
               type: 'doc',
               docId: 'donate',