Question

I ve a portal project built in Rails 1.2.3. I ve finished it at end of 2006.

The project are using the following plug-ins: acts_as_attachment acts_as_ferret betternestedset simple_http_auth

I know all plug-ins (or dependencies) was changed today, or doesn t exists anymore. The DHH says: Don t overestimate the power of versions. But I m worrying about this.

If I update the rails version, all things will gonna fail. I can change my application to work with new rails version. I think I can read what s now deprecated and change it. But now I need to support all dependencies by myself or change it to other dependencies (Eg: acts_as_attachment to atachment_fu or paperclip). What to say about tomorrow?

My doubt isn t only about Rails, it s about using dependencies to increase productivity. In other projects I ve used pure Python code, or even pure Ruby code, or pure Php code. Today I can run it in latest versions of "language/environment" without (or few) changes.

These projects haven t external dependencies, it s just the application code. Maybe using some web framework just as skeleton, but not external projects.

What do you think about this?

Answer 1

When you use someone else s code you pay with your independence for the ready-baked solution for a problem. So it s up to you to decide in each case what s more important to you - build your own stuff and lose time on it now (probably - a lot of time), or use someone else s projects and get the job done right now, but keep tied to them or pay with your time for upgrade/migration later on.

You ve said the project worked for you for three years already - and I think it s great, if you need to bring it up to date - it s natural that you have to invest some time to do it, three years is a long timeframe in this area.

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