Posted: 8th November 2009
As a developer, I am sure you must have faced this choice. A choice between building something new vs using something which is already built. I am currently facing a similar choice while developing a CMS for my application.
I decided weigh the pros and cons of both choices
Building something new
+ A lot to learn from.
+ Can keep the code lean and clean.
+ the experience and joy of building something new
+ can build as required with required features and customize easily in future
- A lot of initial time to build something for scratch
- <if> Buggy code can cause application to misbehave
- Spend time thinking/debating "what if" and "can add" with myself
Something already built
+ Saves times(to some extent)
+ Tried and tested by many.
+ Framework already built. You just need to get started
- Need to spend time learning the CMS and modifying theme to as required
- If a feature required does not exist then spend time learn plugin architecture and then build/test plugin
- You do not have control on "extra" processes which runs behind your application.
- Available choices are many. Spend time figuring out which suites best.
So what am I choosing? Building something new.
Would like hear about your preferred choice.
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