V2.0 - where is it taking us and why should we come along?

Since the plan for the ADMIN has raised its head,

https://github.com/zencart/zencart/issues/2057

I'll add my 10 cents while it has my attention and some ranting that's been in my head for years.

While not to be unappreciative of the great deal of work that is going into V2, it seems to me to be principally rejigging the code to enable plugins to actually BE plugin, cosmetic Admin changes and technical improvements for php compatibility.
Correct me if I am wrong.

From a hard-arsed business-user point of view, what extra functionality are you going to incorporate, to compete with the other market-leading ecommerce solutions, to convince me/business-owners to upgrade/continue investing in ZC?

This will be a breaking change and cause any business owner to look hard at the alternatives and unfortunately it seems ZC has added little functionality since 1.38. It seems to have been all cosmetic and under the hood.
While there will be an upgrade path to maintain existing data, v2.0 will evidently break every current plugin to a greater or lesser extent. Consequently, any user will need to think hard about whether to upgrade for little visible/profitable benefit, followed by hoping the plugin authors are also keen to revamp everything.
A lot of work/time/effort/money to keep things "the same" from a shop-customer and shop-admin point of view.

While there is a wishlist on the forum, has anything ever been implemented from it?

I would have assumed that the whole point of this ZC exercise is to produce the best ecommerce solution. Having the best code is an ideal, but increasing market share seems to me more important, and that comes with giving users what they want/what other shops offer, whether you think you know better or not. Just incorporating the functionality of the top plugins would be a start...
Maybe this is part of the plan, but there is no way of knowing...

After nearly 10 years working and using ZC, I would like nothing more than to recommend it to new users, but I feel that day is still not in sight while it offers nothing new in those 10 years, nor in the next step.

The myriad problems that have afflicted 1.56 are a symptom of the few (and ever-decreasing) technical users willing/available/competent to contribute and test. More hands are required, but I don't see anything being done to attract new blood/new users or stem the decreasing market share.
There is hardly much point having perfect, efficient code if no-one uses it because they are following the Prestashop/Magento herd, not because they are better, but because they offer the features people want in 2019.

So, there is a forum section to report problems with the v2.0 development code...what is it going to offer a business that 1.56 does not, that I can justify the time away from my business and my family to test it?

So, there is a forum section to report problems with the v2.0 development code...

https://www.zen-cart.com/forumdisplay.php?165-ZCDEV-v2-Development-Bugs

what is it going to offer a business that 1.56 does not
You can see the whatsnew list:
http://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/zencart/zencart/blob/develop/docs/whatsnew_2.0.html

Just incorporating the functionality of the top plugins would be a start...

Can you be specific about which plugins you mean?

So currently the extra functionality is:

Guest Checkout (important)
Shipping Insurance & Weights (implemented in Advanced Shipper 10 years ago)
Order updates in customer language (minor, I did this 10 years ago)
Product Microdata (important)
Product Stock Indicators (I also implemented a comprehensive solution years ago)

Can you be specific about which plugins you mean?
I didn't want to be specific as then I am saying what I want, but surely the download count of the plugins in a good indicator of what people want/find lacking....?
And a comparison to the competition would be the next stop.

My opinion has not changed in 10 years as to the missing core features:
no stock control of variants/attributes (covered by Stock by Attributes and Products Options Stock Manager) , poor image management (covered by Image Handler) and no database backup/restore (covered by MyQSL Backup).
All available as plugins, but why should they be optional extras?

No doubt others have many more useful suggestions, I have a simple shop.

My other essential would be
combined ask a question/back in stock notifications

And those damned Friendly Urls are obviously a non-essential frill technically, BUT they are expected by customers and offered by the competition as a standard feature.
When someone is deciding on a ecommerce solution, they are by definition novices and naturally want this feature because they think it is better. It only looks better, but that is enough to tip customers opinion from one site to another, and they are who we are catering for, are we not?
I think if you want new businesses to sign up to ZC, this needs to be on the list, regardless of it being unnecessary technically and so ostensibly a waste of time from a developers point of view. It's a necessary evil, nothing more.

But everything else on the Whats New, IS based on a developers point of view....lots of under-the hood stuff to facilitate customisations, but why not more stuff to reduce the necessity of customisations?
Surely the goal is a perfect product that has "everything" out of the box?

...and how could I forget GDPR support!

Very good observations torvista, I think it would also be great if zen-cart.com shared some PR with sites running ZC and cleaned up the "Showcase" as that is a horrible mess... the current showcase would make me question whether I wanted to give ZC a try because most sites do not exists or they are now a different cart... but if current active carts were shown that would make me feel better ... I would even pay to be a showcase website if it were given the right PR exposure. But yes you are right .... some of the "extras" need to be "standard" (maybe with a switch on/off) and this might help the regrowth of zc.

Very good observations torvista
Thanks. Those post were not knocked out in two minutes, I put some some time/thought into them and, despite the evidence of the last ten years, hoped naively that it may generate some response from the project's leaders on the reasoning that guides the glacial progess.
I'll assume a response of "take it or leave it".

You mentioned this module "Stock by Attributes and Products Options Stock Manager" I am not able to find it .... could you point to it for me?

These are two separate things. POSM is a commercial mod created by @lat9. SBA is a contributed mod; there are several versions you can find in the Plugins area.

Where does one find the v2 code to help find issues?

Thank you!

https://github.com/zencart/zencart

shrimp-gumbo-mmmhhh:

Where does one find the v2 code to help find issues?

Thank you!It appears that one doesn't. 2.0 seems to have been forgotten. 1.5.7 is very slowly creeping along.

V2 work has been de-emphasized. Please see
https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?225567-What-s-coming-next

2.0->"Develop"->1.6...someone should answer the path of reasoning. I have guessed, from various comments over the last year, but they are assumptions....

1.5.7 is very slowly creeping along.
It is subject to continually improvement/fettling by the very few contributors. But, with no (publicly) defined roadmap or milestone to reach, it is impossible to define progress.
https://github.com/zencart/zencart/issues/2973

If people are unhappy with progress, they need to get involved.
My focus of contribution is to try and push every mod I have made to my shop (that I think has general use) into the core, to reduce my upgrade pain.
If everyone did that, it would fly along.

@hairydog would you like to join the fun? Here's how you get started:
https://github.com/zencart/zencart/blob/v157/CONTRIBUTING.md

I wrote a long reply, but this forum lost it.