Posted by Alan Little on 02/12/06 17:52

Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of
Roman of comp.lang.php make plain:

> I intended to hire PHP design firm with a request to implement
> discussion board according to my needs and start from the existing
> one.
>
> They told me they do not modify Open Source software but write new
> one. Of course I did not hire them. I chose PunBB and I am slowly
> making my way through it myself.
>
> Later I talked to another programmer and he told me:
>
>> I am going to say it again - rewriting existing board is much more
>> difficult than writing the new one as you already heard from other
>> people.
>
> I am a programmer myself (not web) and am little disappointed. Is this
> a common opinion among PHP programmers, or I am just aproaching the
> wrong people ?

It depends on your needs, and on the original software. If you need
extensive changes, and/or the original software is not well-written, then
yes, it could definitely be more effective to start from scratch.

At the moment, I'm doing some work for a client who hired me to make some
changes to a program written by someone else. The original code is, shall
we say, not the most competent I've ever seen. I don't know how much the
client paid for it originally, but I'm guessing in the tens of thousands.
Given the spec, I could have created the same app for perhaps $1,000. As
it is, it's cost him nearly that much just for the few changes I've made.

--
Alan Little
Phorm PHP Form Processor
http://www.phorm.com/

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