IPS discontinuing custom CKEditor options?

[LiquidFractal]

OK, so I was told by a developer that IPS plans to discontinue custom button management for CKEditor. 😞

I know there's a rationale behind this from the IPS side of things, but this poses a problem for myself and, I suspect, several other uses here who operate more "writerly" sites - sites that realise they aren't WordPress but would still like functionality to format text and sections in an article, blog post, even a forums post beyond the barebones CKEditor configuration.

So my question/plea is: if what I'm hearing is accurate, could IPS please please consider a viable and flexible alternative?  Is it possible to incorporate a new build of CKEditor which includes, for example, tables, color picker, and other essential formatting elements which are updated regularly?  As it stands I have a couple of brilliant plugins (like @shahed's Wiki plugin and Infobox) which are now for all intensive purposes useless.  OK, I get it, things change, but here's hoping for a CKEditor which evolves with IPS.  It would also be nice to not have to reinstall more mainstream functionality like tables, colors, etc. every time IPS updates something which changes the CKEditor version.

(I'd push for footnotes, but the CKEditor Footnotes plugin stopped working a few versions ago and hasn't been updated for years. 😥😥)

So if you fine folks at IPS could tell us what you have planned that would be great. 👍

Edited September 24, 2020 by liquidfractal

[Charles]

I’m not sure where you heard this but we do not have plans to discontinue custom buttons. 

[LiquidFractal]

4 hours ago, Charles said:

I’m not sure where you heard this but we do not have plans to discontinue custom buttons. 

Charles, thank you for clearing this up! 😁