One possible approach: -Abstract the current application's entity relationships.
-Ensure that there's very good test coverage on the old system. Port the tests to the 'rails world'. -Consider splitting up the revised app into various services. This way if small bits can be ported at a time. -Rebuild the app. But why? What's the business reason for this? As much as I'm a fan of Ruby - and I earn most of my income from it, what's wrong with the current platform that you hope to replace in Rails? Is the system creaking? Will the business die if the port fails and a few developer years of effort are paid for? Once you've replicated the existing features, are you then hoping to extend the system in new ways? Integrate with other webservices, jazz up the UI with the latest JS? I actually like the day of a hackday though, but other than standard day rate for a commercial organisation it'd be a struggle to justify. Having previously organised a series of hack days a few years back, when people are motivated / feel connected with the end goal or organisation then there's a fun level of short term commitment. You could organise a hackday with a slant, say travel, and award a prize of a few grand to the team that produce the best travel application that can be best utilised within the target organisation? Anyways I really like the openness of the idea. Hope it doesn't sound too negative - I'm sure there's very valid business reasons, that are just tricky to disclose? Ian [1]http://twitter.com/oceanician On Wed, Jul 3, 2013, at 04:40 PM, Sean Bamforth wrote: I'm talking to a company about converting a large application to Rails, and we're struggling with seeing what is possible. One option we've discussed is setting up a HackDay. i.e. Inviting as many Rails programmers as we can find to a day where they work on converting / reimagining the companies software. At the end of the day, we can review the software and make some decisions about going the Rails Route / how to reimplement the code base. This is tricksy for a number of reasons, but number one is that nobody really wants to do a bunch of work for a commercial organisation with being paid handsomly. I'm not going to suggest that we grab as many people in for a hackday as we can, and pay them each a fixed industry level amount, because it would be a pretty expensive way of getting a lot of non-commercial code. I'm also not going to suggest some kind of low value bribe (beer, pizza and some kind of donation to a charity of your choice) I'm loathe to offer prizes too. As nice as it is to give one person a MBP, that means there's a whole bunch that don't get a MBP. So - 1) Does this sort of thing (re-imagining a old application) sound like fun? 2) What would I have to pay you / offer to get you to come? 3) Anyone been to anything like this before? Most importantly, what are your thoughts about this? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NWRUG" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at [2]http://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members. For more options, visit [3]https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. References 1. http://twitter.com/oceanician 2. http://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members 3. https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NWRUG" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
