muCommander is cool! but what about source code ? I think it will be very useful - for example , translations to another languages can begin, some plugins and enhancements can be done ..
Exactly, so much could be contributed to this project if the source were to be opened to all. And with such a lack of adequate file managers on OS X there is such a huge potential to entice more users over if development were to resume and more releases occurred.
it would help muCommander into getting a "standard" and being used by much more people!
Absolutely, as soon as you have an open source where people can come and not only suggest but contribute to the feature set you attract so much more attention and support.
But I won't do that until the 2 following conditions are met :
1) Have a solid framework with most of the architecture elements that I had in mind when I first decided to start this project.
2) Have a clean, commented code base which unfortunately is not the case yet (but is getting there).
I understand your reservations about not releasing the source at that time, however it is now two years later and there is still no source available. In any case the building of the framework and the commenting of the code could be done with the help of others, as in any endeavor no matter how adamant you are about your own approach it is not always the correct one, and the insight of others as onlookers is what helps us to see this and so correct our mistakes. Seems only logical to include others in these such important aspects of the development so as to make a more solid and stable base from which to extend muCommander.
but i do think that the History of different Free projects may show the opposite: as a project leader you still keep a total control on what you want and what you don't want to enter your codebase!
I totally agree with this, just thinking about all the open source projects that have done so well in opening their code in such an early state of development and how good a thing it has been for their development. Projects that come to mind are adium, growl, bluej, and many more larger projects like jedit and blender.
It has just been so long since any kind of development has been seen, source release, version release, anything

I think it is very much the time to just release the source in whatever state it is, thus giving the project a much needed boost and injection of of life.