From: Eleanor McHugh <eleanor@...>
Date: 2008-07-06T22:15:36+09:00
Subject: Re: from ruby/RoR to Java (framework unknown) :(

On 6 Jul 2008, at 07:19, Michael T. Richter wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-07-05 at 04:08 +0900, James Britt wrote:
>
>> If Ruby (with Rails or whatever) is the objectively better choice  
>> then
>> you should be able to demonstrate that.  There has to be something
>> tangible, something other than "I like it."
>
> A major supplier of, among other things, medical software recently  
> lost
> their security primo who was also a Ruby/Rails advocate.  It became
> corporate policy to use Java, you see, and absolutely everything they
> did had to be done in Java.  Never mind that said primo was routinely
> able to manoeuvre along with the huge, semi-random requirements  
> changes
> without breaking a sweat.  Never mind that in his opinion -- keep in
> mind that he was hired because he had expertise they didn't have
> in-house! -- moving everything over to Java would be a disaster.   
> Never
> mind that when the Java group that was battling him tried to replicate
> just one snapshot of his code's capabilities in three months of effort
> (it took him three weeks to make that snapshot, and that was with
> exploring the domain as well as designing and coding -- they had the
> design and the domain exploration already done) they "replicated" it  
> by
> ignoring all the requirements that he was working under and provided a
> service that would require their users to license very expensive
> third-party software components to access.  Never mind all that:
> corporate policy was "everything in Java" so everything had to be in
> Java.

My partner in crime Romek has just had a similar experience with a  
leading UK bank. They hired him to sort out their PKI, a task which  
experience tells us he could have completed in three weeks with Ruby.  
Unfortunately they were a Visual C++ house so he spent 6+ months doing  
it that way. Now his contract is up and they're switching to Java, so  
the whole thing will be redone with bouncy castle. Needless to say,  
the PKI is just as unlikely to see the light of day this year if ever.

> I really don't like being cynical, I'm just driven to it by  
> observation
> of life.  No amount of objective "what's best" will ever reverse a
> management decision once it's made.  Rationality has no place in
> business management, it seems, only ego.

Based on my personal experience it's equal parts ego, fear, ignorance  
and incompetence. It's a wonder really that we're not still living in  
tents and digging for roots for a living.


Ellie

Eleanor McHugh
Games With Brains
http://slides.games-with-brains.net
----
raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason