Ruby on Rails: What to do with legacy code?

Question

Hi, 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.