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Ask HN: Is rebuilding an entire legacy software system stupid?
2 points by bveiseh 1440 days ago
I don't mean one legacy software, I'm talking a large set of intertwined and complex software systems that were build 30 years ago and still (inefficiently) in use today.

Is rebuilding it into one modern platform a stupid idea? And would a VC fund it?
4 comments
h2odragon 1440 days ago
I'm sure theres stories of "we re-wrote everything in $(modern language) on time, in budget, and now everything works so much better"... I've never heard one tho.

If you want someone else to fund such a thing, it's probably gonna need to be something that has immediate, slam dunk sales prospects at then end... like "we're gonna re-write the post office systems and we know we can sell it because the Postmaster General is my father"

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bveiseh 1439 days ago
you're not far off, tho nepotism wouldn't be a contributing factor lol, see my commend below
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mikewarot 1440 days ago
>still (inefficiently) in use today.

What's inefficient about it? Computers are millions of times faster than they were, you're not worried about CPU cycles are you?

Is there a business need that the software can't meet? Or, is it just the general hassle of dealing with legacy code?

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bveiseh 1439 days ago
Not cpu cycles, I mean real system architecture inefficiencies + adding modern processes to improve performance. see my comment below on what I had in mind, but basically airline systems
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akagusu 1440 days ago
It's difficult to say anything without context.

What does it do?

What is the motivation behind the rewrite?

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bveiseh 1439 days ago
I want to re-write the systems that manage airline bookings, ticketing, and flight+crew management.

Airlines are always facing issues with ticketing and mismanagement of assigning air crews and pilots.. introducing a modern ML accelerated flow to determine how to balance ticketing with crews for flights, taking into account historical numbers of passengers for that time/route could have an enormous impact on airline efficiency.

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LouisSayers 1440 days ago
If you're asking yourself if it's a stupid idea, it sounds like you already know the answer...

Maybe if you could attack just a part of the problem, extract it, then you might have something?

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