Node.js: fork - yes or not?
I think use Node.js is much better than RoR. (IMHO)
Changing the language will be famous news.
But i think this is not loved thema.
Changing anything big will take many time and financies.
Diaspora hasn't any financies (i think) and time can be used for other features/improvements.
But when will somebody fork this project and rebuild it to Node.js what will say the crew?
Do you accept forks of your project or will you continue with justice?
Thank you for any answers
Steffen van Bergerem Tue 11 Feb 2014 10:58PM
diaspora* is free software so everyone is allowed to create forks.
Erwan Guyader Tue 11 Feb 2014 11:03PM
As @steffenvanbergerem said it, diaspora is a free software.
As long as you respect the terms of the license, you can fork it, modify it, change the language if you want.
You can find more about the license and the copyrighted content (like the name) here: https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/blob/develop/COPYRIGHT
nio Tue 11 Feb 2014 11:10PM
In me opinion the big brake for diaspora is installation, updating and administrating.
I have one installation on me own server, but installation wasn't as easy as i think.
I don't have idea to update or setup autoupdate.
Administrating and changing design is one big nightmare there.
Anyway, when will be there solved updating, administrating and customize design it will be famous software.
When I sad about administrating i have idea about administrating area with possibilities do the updates, delete users, create design changes etc...
David Thompson Wed 12 Feb 2014 12:52AM
Ah, another manifestation of shiny-new-shit syndrome. Now that Rails has become older and more stable, web developers look for the new bleeding edge language/framework and seek to rewrite the universe once again. Even if it were true that node.js and JavaScript were technically superior, which is not true, the amount of work required to rewrite an established codebase would only ensure that diaspora makes no real progress towards its actual goals. You're free to fork, of course, but I wouldn't expect any contributors to follow you.
Christian Giménez Wed 12 Feb 2014 5:06AM
Node.js is fast, yes, is the last up-to-date thing, yes, but what about JavaScript? Well, the little I saw is not so good: it seems (at least for me) that that language wasn't created for big projects...
I feel more comfortable using Ruby, and Ruby on Rails is a big and nice framework to start and continue a project like this, not to mention that is also Free Software (as in freedom). Also, there are lots of tools that make everything a bit more easier (like modifing the database and templates for controls and view).
Well, I prefer that we concentrate in things like an easy and fast install instead of using our efforts to rewriting all from scratch.
I still remember all the headaches that identi.ca had when the site migrates, Evan promised three months before it really started to work! Later, it had lots of errors and, maybe there still are more. I think he was very enthusiastic but he couldn't accomplish what he said and, in my opinion, it was because all the tools he used including the JS language. However, I like what identi.ca achieves: a great federational feature, but it did thanks for the relatively easy install (it tooks me only 20 minutes + download time!).
That's my point of view about this...
goob Wed 12 Feb 2014 12:11PM
I think one of the reasons for choosing Ruby on Rails for this project was that Ruby is considered a very easy language to learn, which lowers the barrier to contributing to the project. Very important in an open-source project like this...
nio Wed 12 Feb 2014 5:37PM
Ok, thanks for all suggestions.
And one little information for me:
Is it on plan: customizing design (for example use self css or scss in case update), administration area and updating the project with updater or autoupdater.
Thank you all
Jason Robinson Wed 12 Feb 2014 6:19PM
Once the federation is in it's own gem, outside the diaspora server code, anyone can port the federation as a node module and create a server in node. Who says diaspora* has to always be just RoR servers?
Jason Robinson Wed 12 Feb 2014 6:20PM
I mean, we already have Friendica talking with diaspora* servers.
Sean Tilley · Tue 11 Feb 2014 10:57PM
No. The amount of effort to shift from one platform to another does not justify the result. We would basically have to rewrite all of Diaspora from scratch.
Instead, I think a better motivation would be to ensure that Diaspora can be set up and deployed easily.
While it's true that currently most Rails apps run on cloud services such as Heroku and Amazon, the Flynn project intends to take the capabilities of a Heroku-like service and put it on any Linux server you have, making application deployment that much easier.