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The thing about software development is that the technology (tools) changes faster than you can evolve a product. Integrating new technologies into an existing

by blehn 16y ago

The thing about software development is that the technology (tools) changes faster than you can evolve a product. Integrating new technologies into an existing product can be a real challenge. If all you do is evolve, there inevitably comes a point where your product is behind the curve. Basecamp and Fogbugz are good products that were probably great at some point, but now they just seem old and crusty compared to products like Asana and Pivotal Tracker. I'd argue that in order to stay competitive, you need to either evolve rapidly enough to keep up with the pace of technology (Gmail, Facebook), or rethink and rebuild the product before it falls behind.

smikhanov 16y ago
There are lots of hottest web startups out there that use LAMP as their primary stack. Even more, first version of Mint.com was written (horror!) in Java. The technology stack has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to keep the pace with competition.
- blehn 16y ago
  first version of Mint.com was written (horror!) in Java You're implying that it was entirely rewritten in something else later...
- Nitramp 16y ago
  I'm still pretty sure that if you pick your frameworks and tools right, Java can be a competitive development framework. If you go all Java Beans, EJB, etc, you might be in trouble, but it's not so much the language per se.
  - mgkimsal 16y ago
    Grails FTW :)
nhangen 16y ago
It's hard to compare Asana, which still hasn't outgrown beta, to a product like Basecamp that has serviced millions of users. I agree that Basecamp feels a bit stale, but I don't think it's as much about technology as it is about their design and development philosophy.
- blehn 16y ago
  That's fair. I suppose the real point is that it's easy for a product get stale, even if it's constantly evolving.
stuhacking 16y ago
or rethink and rebuild the product before it falls behind. You mean like Netscape did? oh, wait...
jorangreef 16y ago
The tools to make Gmail and Asana existed when Basecamp was launched. Specifically, the fallacies of distributed computing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Comput...) and approaches to address them existed when Basecamp was launched. That they are now starting to be addressed more and more by applications like Gmail and Asana are not a function of revolutionary advances in our tools, but of an evolution in the collective understanding of our tools. It is not so much about keeping up with the pace of technology, as it is about understanding technology, and the advances already made.

by blehn 16y ago

smikhanov 16y ago

There are lots of hottest web startups out there that use LAMP as their primary stack. Even more, first version of Mint.com was written (horror!) in Java. The technology stack has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to keep the pace with competition.

blehn 16y ago
first version of Mint.com was written (horror!) in Java You're implying that it was entirely rewritten in something else later...
Nitramp 16y ago
I'm still pretty sure that if you pick your frameworks and tools right, Java can be a competitive development framework. If you go all Java Beans, EJB, etc, you might be in trouble, but it's not so much the language per se.
- mgkimsal 16y ago
  Grails FTW :)

nhangen 16y ago

It's hard to compare Asana, which still hasn't outgrown beta, to a product like Basecamp that has serviced millions of users. I agree that Basecamp feels a bit stale, but I don't think it's as much about technology as it is about their design and development philosophy.

blehn 16y ago
That's fair. I suppose the real point is that it's easy for a product get stale, even if it's constantly evolving.

stuhacking 16y ago

or rethink and rebuild the product before it falls behind. You mean like Netscape did? oh, wait...

jorangreef 16y ago

The tools to make Gmail and Asana existed when Basecamp was launched. Specifically, the fallacies of distributed computing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Comput...) and approaches to address them existed when Basecamp was launched. That they are now starting to be addressed more and more by applications like Gmail and Asana are not a function of revolutionary advances in our tools, but of an evolution in the collective understanding of our tools. It is not so much about keeping up with the pace of technology, as it is about understanding technology, and the advances already made.