Posted by NC on 02/13/06 23:15

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.

What this probably means is that they have their own product with
similar functionality and they (in a somewhat misleading fashion) sell
customizations of this product as custom development.

Another possibility is that the company you talked to has had an
unpleasant experience of engaging into a modification project only to
find out that the customer is requesting a modification that is
incompatible with the product's architecture...

At any rate, you probably made the right decision by not hiring that
particular company.

> 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 ?

A little bit of both. There are programmers (and not just in the PHP
arena), who believe that working with code they didn't write is beneath
them. This is a mentality you are likely to encounter in the snobbier
custom-programming shops.

On the other hand, many Open Source products have a community built
around them that, in addition to the author(s), includes experienced
implementers and "modders" (people who modify the product to fit their,
or other people's, specific needs). So what you could have done
instead is to poke around punbb.org to see if any of the active modders
(or, perhaps, even the author) would be interested in cranking out a
custom-built release. Perhaps you could have even written to the
author and ask him whether he would consider it or, if not, whom he
would recommend...

Cheers,
NC

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