Node_media 2.0 and port to D6

As per discussion regarding a port of node_images to D6 (http://drupal.org/node/232890) my efforts in my port went a little astray as I ended up coding for my immediate needs rather than for a releasable contrib module. I guess my intentions were mainly to create/modify a module for attaching images to nodes and use it to insert them, simply, as inline images without having to install a WYSIWYG editor or using the Image module as, for my purposes, images are not nodes, and I just wanted to use simple html markup. node_images seemed a good start as it just treated images as attached content that I could forget about once the node they were attached to was published, and if I deleted the node the images were deleted as well--just what I wanted.

In any case, I just got around to adding my doo-dads to node_images to a rough port of node_images for D6 adding mainly support for adding images on a node editing page, zip uploads, and slideshows using the jQuery cycle plugin (and on my development site initial support for adding node_images to new, unsaved nodes to mimic Wordpress' image uploading mechanism). To facilitate the inline placement I used jQuery thickbox windows as it provided:

1. A friendlier mechanism than scrolling down a window to open collapsed divs to select an image and then scroll back up to my editing window to get back to editing.
2. An easier way to have a dynamically updated form to upload images with. This was probably a bit of a kludge, but when I had the node_images form as part of the node form, things tended to get pretty screwey with the ahah form caching and rebuilding. Adding images via an ajax form in a thickbox window sidestepped dealing with updating the node form and made for a more pleasant experience.

The really bad part about all of this is that node_images is pretty much dead as of D5. I'm a little hesitant to release another patch of a module that's no longer going to be maintained, and I don't want to branch off a new project. I don't mind if my additions don't get added to an official contrib module as I have what I need. At the same time, I feel like there might be some interest in the things I have coded, and I figure I could just release patches and let people do what they will, whether it be integrated as part of node_media or not.

Anyway, I guess my concerns are that I have no interest in D5 at this point. My development is currently based on D6 and I have to code for what I am working with. To that, I guess I can't wait around for node_media to stabilize for D5 as I have to continue working my D6 projects and get them done yesterday.

I'm not all caught up with the aims of node_media. I know that it's based off of node_images, and that it's still under 5.x development. However, I'm making some fairly major changes to the node_images code so I'm sure it wouldn't integrate that easily with whatever node_media finally becomes. My situation is that I have to make things work for my purposes right now and that means adding features now. This, unfortunately, sort of puts my code in a lousy situation. It's for an abandoned project, but shares a common ancestry with a current project, but that project won't be done probably until after I am going to be done with the bulk of my coding my node_images mods for my needs, at which point it would probably be too different to be considered for integration.

I guess, after all of this, my question is: do I bother releasing patches until node_media begins an official port to D6 or even at all? Unfortunately, I don't have the time to help finish node_media and I'm not in the position to suggest new features for a future module, as I have to make them happen now. I would like to give something back to the community, but given the situation of node_images and node_media, I don't know if my patches for a D6 node_images module helps at all.

Sorry for the little rant. I was feeling a little disparaged at the thought of waiting around for a 5.x version to stabilize...After thinking about this for a little bit, I guess what I would like to see in some version, in very general terms, is this:

1. Modularization of display. Removing galleries and slideshows etc., from the actual module, just keep the node-file management aspects and basic display of media ("above node", "below node"). Various galleries/display methods could just be plugged in to use media from the node object.
2. Modularization of options for inline display/markup. Something I don't like about the a lot of media modules is the requirement to use specialized markup in order to display an image, conversely people probably feel the same way about HTML. Make it optional/modular.
3. As far as what a 2.0 release *should* include is the ability to upload media while working with a new node. The two-step process of saving a node before adding things is a bit confusing to new users, and should be dealt with. Really, the core module should just handle file uploads (and make it as friendly as possible), loading media as part of the node object, and cleanup of media files on node-deletion.