Suggest modification to this talk

Title

Description

Date

Summarized using AI?

If this talk's summary was generated by AI, please check this box. A "Summarized using AI" badge will be displayed in the summary tab to indicate that the summary was generated using AI.

Show "Summarized using AI" badge on summary page

Summary

Markdown supported

In her talk titled "The Past, Present and Future of Rails at GitHub" at Balkan Ruby 2019, Eileen Uchitelle, an engineer at GitHub and a member of the Rails core team, discusses the journey of upgrading GitHub’s application from old versions of Rails to modern ones. The talk explores the relationship between GitHub and Rails, illustrating how decisions made long ago resulted in a significant technical debt that complicated their ability to upgrade. Eileen emphasizes the importance of understanding the consequences of technical debt, recounting the history of Rails and GitHub’s early use of Rails, including when they forked Rails due to various performance issues. She highlights the struggles faced during major upgrades, specifically covering the seven-year period it took to upgrade from Rails 3 to 5.2.

Key points discussed include:
- The historical context of Rails and its evolution since its inception in 2004.
- GitHub's early decisions to fork Rails, which led to increased technical debt over the years.
- The cost of not upgrading, including security vulnerabilities, challenges in hiring, and adopting new features.
- The strategic implementation of an upgrade plan, including creating a dedicated team for the upgrade effort and developing tools to ease the transition.
- The successful upgrade processes used at GitHub, showcasing the use of dual booting to allow testing for multiple Rails versions simultaneously.
- The long-term benefits of maintaining a current version of Rails, such as improved security, performance, and the ability to contribute back to the Rails community.
- The speaker concludes by encouraging others not to fear upgrading, emphasizing that continuous upgrades lead to a healthier code base and a sustained ability to innovate.

Ultimately, the talk illustrates that while the upgrade path is challenging, it is crucial for the long-term success of applications that rely on frameworks like Rails, fostering an environment for community contributions and technological advancements.

Cancel