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Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

pagedraw.io

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Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#11

Post by beachy »

One absolute rule for success in software is that there are no absolute rules.

From their post mortem https://medium.com/@gabriel_20625/technical-lessons-from-bui...

> Performance is never a justification for anything if you haven’t measured it

This just isn't true. Anyone with a reasonable amount of experience is often able to look ahead - well before any code is written - and see how performance could be better if road A is taken instead of road B.

Its madness in that case to blindly choose a road without even thinking about performance - even if it is unmeasurable and in the future.

There's more in the same vein:

> Go back to step 2 and make sure you completely ignore performance, because you probably haven’t.

Now I have to imagine that these guys don't genuinely believe what they wrote - but in that case, ditch the words "never" and "completely ignore" and go for something more reasonable.

(Of course that would make the phrasing less dramatic and click-baity, which is maybe what it takes to get eyeballs these days)

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#12

Post by lbotos »

beachy wrote: post #11

One absolute rule for success in software is that there are no absolute rules. From their post mortem https://medium.com/@gabriel_20625/technical-lessons-from-bui... > Performance is never a justification for anything if you haven’t measured it This just isn't true. Anyone with a reasonable amount of experience is often able to look ahead - well before any code is written - and see how performance could be better if…

I think you missed the gist?

They are saying if you are saying "this piece needs to be more performant" you need to measure that first, before making your choice of what to make better.

You are saying, "you can with an idea in mind optimize before you go and it will have better performance" but the current prevailing business logic is do not optimize until you know it's "the right thing".

AKA premature optimization is bad.

Did I mis-interpret what you are saying?

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#13

Post by ams6110 »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #4
theon144 wrote: post #2

I like the subtle nod through capitalization in the phrase "It’s been An Incredible Journey".

Though unlike an Incredible Journey, this is the right way to shut down: Open up your code and contribute what you did to society.

Maybe, maybe not. Did they have investors? The code is an asset. Can they sell the code/IP for any significant amount of money? If so, they should do that and pay back the investors/reduce their losses.

Maybe there are no buyers, or the investors are on board with the open-source plan, who knows. But it's not always the right answer or even possible.

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#14

Post by ams6110 »

lbotos wrote: post #12
beachy wrote: post #11

One absolute rule for success in software is that there are no absolute rules. From their post mortem https://medium.com/@gabriel_20625/technical-lessons-from-bui... > Performance is never a justification for anything if you haven’t measured it This just isn't true. Anyone with a reasonable amount of experience is often able to look ahead - well before any code is written - and see how performance could be better if…

I think you missed the gist? They are saying if you are saying "this piece needs to be more performant" you need to measure that first, before making your choice of what to make better. You are saying, "you can with an idea in mind optimize before you go and it will have better performance" but the current prevailing business logic is do not optimize until you know it's "the right thing". AKA premature optimization i…

I think GP is saying, if you are at a point in development where you can choose A or B, and A has foreseeable better performance or scalability, all else being equal choose A.

A lot of assumptions there and real world is almost never that clear-cut.

The general advice of "don't optimize until you've measured" is still almost always correct.

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#15

Post by beachy »

lbotos wrote: post #12
beachy wrote: post #11

One absolute rule for success in software is that there are no absolute rules. From their post mortem https://medium.com/@gabriel_20625/technical-lessons-from-bui... > Performance is never a justification for anything if you haven’t measured it This just isn't true. Anyone with a reasonable amount of experience is often able to look ahead - well before any code is written - and see how performance could be better if…

I think you missed the gist? They are saying if you are saying "this piece needs to be more performant" you need to measure that first, before making your choice of what to make better. You are saying, "you can with an idea in mind optimize before you go and it will have better performance" but the current prevailing business logic is do not optimize until you know it's "the right thing". AKA premature optimization i…

I'm saying there are very few real black and whites, and everything in life and in software is more kind of grey.

As such there are very few black and white rules you can follow and succeed.

The correct approach is somewhere to the left of "premature optimization" and somewhere to the right of "don't even think about performance until you can measure it".

More experienced and talented people will be more successful at picking that sweet spot.

Telling a dev that the correct approach is to pay absolutely no attention to performance before it can be measured is ... crazy IMO. I would expect them to have at least thought about it, and have some opinions, just as they should not have put excessive effort into prematurely optimizing things they don't know are going to be a problem.

My point is - its grey, use your brains, don't buy into absolute rules.

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#16

Post by syntaxing »

I'm actually really disappointed that I found out about them because they're shutting down. This looks perfect to me because I've been wanting to make some sites fast but I don't have the time to expand my React skills currently. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative?

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#18

Post by snazz »

syntaxing wrote: post #16

I'm actually really disappointed that I found out about them because they're shutting down. This looks perfect to me because I've been wanting to make some sites fast but I don't have the time to expand my React skills currently. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative?

They’re making a desktop app (that will be released as open source as they shut down the website). Maybe it would fill your needs?

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#19

Post by jitl »

syntaxing wrote: post #16

I'm actually really disappointed that I found out about them because they're shutting down. This looks perfect to me because I've been wanting to make some sites fast but I don't have the time to expand my React skills currently. Does anyone have a good recommendation for an alternative?

Use the open-source desktop app they released.

Re: Pagedraw is shutting down and going open source

#20

Post by dinedal »

jpeg_hero wrote: post #7
moreira wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odds are, never. If some volunteer open-source developer decides to pick it up, it might happen, but as the company's shutting down, any "soon" promised by them in the past is obviously now a "never". Note: That page is clearly just their old homepage + the shutdown message; whatever it says was written pre-shutdown.

Sad but true, from having seen upfront a similar process. It takes just a fraction of work to bundle all the tech up for open source, but at the point of shutdown everyone is usually just toast... sadness to it too. Most people can't put in that day or two required to jettison it into open source land, right now, and then in a month or two the rot has already set in. Hopefully these guys buck the trend, because there…

The link to the source is right on the page? https://github.com/Pagedraw/pagedraw
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