[BioRuby] gsoc suggestion: microframework for simple scientific web wrappers

[Iain Barnett]

On 9 February 2014 12:44, Yannick Wurm <y.wurm at qmul.ac.uk> wrote:

<snip>

>
> Iain Barnett wrote:
> > 1. Check CLI and library are separated. If not, separate them. Not only
> > does this make calling the library easier, it has the added bonus of
> > improving that library and allowing others to develop against it more
> > easily too.
>
> Agreed - that is how things should be. Unfortunately, too much
> bioinformatics software is still is based on bad development practices.
> Even big packages used by tens of thousands of people. This will slowly
> change as software sustainability & reproducible research ideas make their
> way into curricula and more knowledgable people get involved in
> bioinformatics stuff. So for the next few years at least. the suggestion is
> unrealistic.
>

What you're talking about is known amongst developers as "technical debt".
Like real debt, putting off paying it makes it even worse, and if it seems
too much to pay it now I find it strangely optimistic to think it'll get
paid more fully later. Personally, I wouldn't even consider wrapping
interfaces like that as a viable option given the circumstances, but that's
just my opinion, and maybe that's because I've never done it that way. It
would be a good idea to speak to other developers, especially any that have
actually done this - perhaps there are some using other languages like
Python that have done this. It'd be especially interesting if it was done
with Open Source libraries too.

Best practice in development isn't just for full time developers, it's for
anyone that writes program code. Scientists and researchers aren't a
special case, computers just don't care ;)

Regards,
Iain



>
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