5 ms·

Does anyone know why they are rewriting the whole thing? The github page doesn't mention the reasoning behind the decision

unixhero 4y ago
Well this is a very simple system and could for instance be reimplemented in Ruby On Rails in ... a few days?
- muratsu 4y ago
  I'm sure it's not the most sophisticated software, but the repo has 3,736 commits over several years. I would imagine it would take them more than a few days :)
- endigma 4y ago
  We do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they would be easy.
- robinhood 4y ago
  Founder of Monica and Chandler here. It's so easy that the rewrite (aka Chandler) has taken Alexis and me 11 months so far, as a side project, and working most nights and weekends (check the number of commits). I know that Monica appears to be easy, and Chandler also, but it's not easy. Making a clone for yourself is easier, although not that easy if you want to replicate all the features. Making a clone for an entire community, which hosts Monica in tens of different configurations, means having a robust CI, a pipeline to package and deploy Docker images, a solid API, and so on and so on. I thought building a project like Monica was easy at first, but 6 years in, I can confidently say: it's really not.
  - RajT88 4y ago
    I would be a wealthy man indeed if I had a dollar for every time some software engineer espoused, "This is crap! I could build a better one myself!". If you took away a dollar for every software engineer who I heard say that, and actually followed through, I'd still be a rich man.
  - DenisM 4y ago
    Is there a feature allowing to see at a glance all my contacts (group by category) and if they are getting stale? Didn’t see it at a glance.
kapep 4y ago
It's mentioned on their blog: https://www.monicahq.com/blog/a-new-version-is-coming https://www.monicahq.com/blog/a-new-version-is-coming > [...] Monica is an old code base now. Old in the sense that it’s 7 years old and it has been touched by hundred of contributors. There are some concepts in the code that we let through, because we either didn’t know any better back then or because we didn’t want to piss off contributors, that we don’t want anymore. The project has way too many dependencies, and maintaining the code has become harder than it was before. Changing something is riskier, and takes more time. Also, we’ve seen how people use Monica, what they want to do with it, and the current code limits us way too much if we want to support what people want to use Monica for. Finally, Monica is still a side project for us. We are extremely passionate about it, and we want to also have fun building it. And the current version wasn’t that fun.
- muratsu 4y ago
  Thanks! Over the years I've seen several companies raise VC money for the personal CRM idea and fail. In a way, I'm glad they didn't raise outside capital and are able to sustain themselves while building something that they are clearly passionate about.
  - robinhood 4y ago
    Author of Chandler here. We are able to sustain the server costs, but we have full time jobs "on the side" because it's not sustainable. I don't know if it's ever will. Don't care :-) Raising capital would make this project a full time job, and put tremendous pressure on having to generate revenues. We don't want this pressure at all. We want to provide a nice and useful software because we are geeks and we want to do something good. I know it sounds naive and cliché but it's true. And if the project buys us a new computer from time to time, that's all that matters.
    - swyx 4y ago
      this comment sold me on trying out Monica. thank you for doing what you do.
- 4y ago
lupire 4y ago
Rewrites are more fun than solving user problems

unixhero 4y ago

Well this is a very simple system and could for instance be reimplemented in Ruby On Rails in ... a few days?

muratsu 4y ago
I'm sure it's not the most sophisticated software, but the repo has 3,736 commits over several years. I would imagine it would take them more than a few days :)
endigma 4y ago
We do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they would be easy.
robinhood 4y ago
Founder of Monica and Chandler here. It's so easy that the rewrite (aka Chandler) has taken Alexis and me 11 months so far, as a side project, and working most nights and weekends (check the number of commits). I know that Monica appears to be easy, and Chandler also, but it's not easy. Making a clone for yourself is easier, although not that easy if you want to replicate all the features. Making a clone for an entire community, which hosts Monica in tens of different configurations, means having a robust CI, a pipeline to package and deploy Docker images, a solid API, and so on and so on. I thought building a project like Monica was easy at first, but 6 years in, I can confidently say: it's really not.
- RajT88 4y ago
  I would be a wealthy man indeed if I had a dollar for every time some software engineer espoused, "This is crap! I could build a better one myself!". If you took away a dollar for every software engineer who I heard say that, and actually followed through, I'd still be a rich man.
- DenisM 4y ago
  Is there a feature allowing to see at a glance all my contacts (group by category) and if they are getting stale? Didn’t see it at a glance.

kapep 4y ago

It's mentioned on their blog: https://www.monicahq.com/blog/a-new-version-is-coming https://www.monicahq.com/blog/a-new-version-is-coming > [...] Monica is an old code base now. Old in the sense that it’s 7 years old and it has been touched by hundred of contributors. There are some concepts in the code that we let through, because we either didn’t know any better back then or because we didn’t want to piss off contributors, that we don’t want anymore. The project has way too many dependencies, and maintaining the code has become harder than it was before. Changing something is riskier, and takes more time. Also, we’ve seen how people use Monica, what they want to do with it, and the current code limits us way too much if we want to support what people want to use Monica for. Finally, Monica is still a side project for us. We are extremely passionate about it, and we want to also have fun building it. And the current version wasn’t that fun.

muratsu 4y ago
Thanks! Over the years I've seen several companies raise VC money for the personal CRM idea and fail. In a way, I'm glad they didn't raise outside capital and are able to sustain themselves while building something that they are clearly passionate about.
- robinhood 4y ago
  Author of Chandler here. We are able to sustain the server costs, but we have full time jobs "on the side" because it's not sustainable. I don't know if it's ever will. Don't care :-) Raising capital would make this project a full time job, and put tremendous pressure on having to generate revenues. We don't want this pressure at all. We want to provide a nice and useful software because we are geeks and we want to do something good. I know it sounds naive and cliché but it's true. And if the project buys us a new computer from time to time, that's all that matters.
  - swyx 4y ago
    this comment sold me on trying out Monica. thank you for doing what you do.
4y ago

lupire 4y ago

Rewrites are more fun than solving user problems