Posted by Jerry Stuckle on 02/13/06 22:07

Roman wrote:
> 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 ?
>
> Thanks for opinions
> Roman

Roman,

Several things here.

As others have pointed out, if the code is really messy, rewriting may
be more efficient than trying to fix the existing code. Also, if they
are not familiar with the code, they'll have to spend a lot of time
understanding how it works before they make changes. And all of that
would be billable time for you.

And once they understand the code, they need to make the changes. If
you want something just a little different, it's often not a problem.
However, if you want massive changes to the code, yes, it very well
could be easier and cheaper to start from scratch.

There's also the licensing issue. When they write the code, they hold
the license (unless they transfer it to you) and have no other worries.
Most Open Source licenses have restrictions on what you can do with
them, at least maintaining the license information in the code. And
many of them also require if you make changes to the code that those
changes will also be Open Source. They may not wish to 'donate' their
work to the Open Source projects.

A basic discussion board is not that hard to write. Of course, the more
features you want, the harder it is. Most of the Open Source and
commercial discussion boards are much more complex because they cater to
the varying needs of a large group of users. They could be much simpler
if they only met the needs of one user.

Open Source is good, IMHO, and has contributed greatly to the
advancement of the current state of the art. But modifying current open
source projects is not always the answer.

As to your comment:

> "When 18 year old kid tells me that the code with active community of
> thousands users is no good and they would write me the better one, I
> have slight problem with believing that."

(another post), I wouldn't necessarily sell them short. I've seen a lot
of 18 year old programmers do better than those in their 30's and 40's.
Age is not necessarily the factor here - it's maturity and (the right
kind of) experience.



--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
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