We've seen that in GIS freeware development. Someone has a particular need for or interest in translation software and then writes something to that end. When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor . This is critical to a project's survival. When you've scratched the itch, move on.
Good programmers know what to write.
So, share code. Your old code may serve as an excellent starting point for a new project. Raymond notes that Torvald began with Minix, a small Unix-like operating system for PCs. It should be noted that although there are many commercial Web servers available, Apache remains the most widely used and is a testament to the freeware model. This is seen in many freeware projects.