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Open Sourcing: Real Talk by Andrew Evans This is a sponsored talk by Hired. Hired open-sources some useful abstractions from our Majestic Monolith® and we've learned a lot. Some tough lessons, and some cool knowledge. We'll cover: When & where should you pull something out of the code? Does it really help? What things are important to think about? What if it never takes off? We'll also look at some design patterns from our open-source work.
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In the talk "Open Sourcing: Real Talk," Andrew Evans discusses the experiences and insights Hired has gained from open-sourcing parts of their codebase. This session at RailsConf 2017 explores when, why, and how developers might consider pulling code out of their applications into open-source repositories, emphasizing both the challenges and benefits involved. **Key Points Discussed:** - **Introduction to Hired**: Evans provides context about Hired's role in connecting tech candidates with companies and mentions their ongoing commitment to open-source projects, showcasing 46 public repositories on GitHub. - **Reasons to Open Source**: - Sharing common application logic can reduce duplication across different Rails applications. - Contributions from the community can provide bug fixes, feature additions, and documentation at no cost. - It can enhance the visibility and credibility of developers within the tech community. - **Challenges Faced**: Evans addresses the reality that while open-sourcing can lead to excitement, the actual traction for projects can be underwhelming. Metrics from Hired's own repositories reveal they aren't attracting vast engagement or recognition. - **Case Studies of Open-Sourced Projects**: - **Reactor**: A publish/subscribe system built to manage background processing efficiently. Evan discusses the technical benefits of separating this code from their main application, which helps maintain clean architecture and reduces inadvertent changes. Additionally, it encourages thorough documentation and testing because of public scrutiny. - **Design Patterns**: Evans highlights learning opportunities about design patterns through open-sourcing, such as the visitor pattern used for building query syntax. - **Stretchy**: A query builder for Elasticsearch intended to provide flexibility in search queries. Evans discusses the design choices made, the user experience, and the balance of keeping business logic contained within their application while allowing extensible flexibility in the open-sourced tool. - **Conclusions and Takeaways**: - Open-sourcing can significantly refine coding practices, enhance team conventions, and improve overall code quality, despite not generating the anticipated fame or recognition. - Developers are encouraged to take a thoughtful approach when separating code into open-source projects to foster clearer and simpler code structures. - Ultimately, the experience provides valuable learning about Ruby, RubyGems, and the integration of open-source projects within Ruby on Rails environments. The overall message conveys that while the journey of open-sourcing may not always yield external fame, inwardly, it can cultivate improved practices and processes, ultimately benefiting both the developers and the organization.
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