Guust Nieuwenhuis talks about “Modernizing ColdFusion apps (through evolution, not revolution)” in this episode of the ColdFusion Alive Podcast with host Michaela Light.

"We're going to be talking about modernizing your legacy ColdFusion apps through evolution and not revolution. And we'll explain what that means."

Show notes

Why not rewrite legacy apps?

A feeling (to rewrite) isn’t sufficient

Hot language

Blame the tech stack not the architecture, CTO or the dev team

Dev phrases

Only my language

Only rewrite not refactor - belief than is harder to recode than rewrite 

Tech > business

Delays release

Adds risk of project failure

Lack of written business rules

More bugs and less functionality

Expensive

“Rewrite code from scratch is the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make” - Joel Spolsky cofounder of Stack Overflow, Fogbugz and Trello

Do nothing option

Build up tech debt

Increase security risk footprint month by month

User dissatisfaction grows

It works after years of tweaks and bug fixing and real world use

Refactor instead

Keep database the same

Incremental improvements vs waterfall

Agile

Just in time refactor improvements - surgical micro rewrite 

Refresh front end with JavaScript frameworks such as React, Vue

Business case driven

Legacy issues

Spaghetti code

Hard to follow

Hard to change

Poor naming conventions for functions, include and CFC files and variables

Poor variable scoping (global variables can be overwritten and are generally dangerous 

Hardcoded “magic” values

Deadwood code

Security issues due to…

Old framework

Unsupported libraries 

Deprecated integrations

No test plan or automated tests

Not documented

Hard to maintain or add new features

Performance issues

Adding features

Better architecture

API exposure for mobile app or partners

Encapsulate functionality

Set a boundary

Microservices

Vs Monolith

Specialized CF Engine package management to remove unneeded CFML features for fast load and running. 

Strangler Fig Pattern

Anti-corruption layer

Document architecture decisions in JIRA

Magic numbers to static variables

Wrapper functions

Event driven architecture 

Code trauma and political reluctance 

Same habits, same mistakes!

Read more

Eric Evans domain driven design

Martin Fowler blog and books 

Strangler Fig Pattern

Anti-corruption layer

Ben Nadel Feature flags 

Links below

Going CFCamp in June

Mentioned in this episode

His CF Summit preso

Joel Spolsky article and quote Things You Should Never Do, Part I 

Eric Evans domain driven design 

Martin Fowler blog and books 

Strangler Fig Pattern

Anti-corruption layer

Ben Nadel Feature flags 

Listen to the Audio

Bio

Guust Nieuwenhuis is a Full Stack Web Wizard with experience in a wide range of technologies. Over the last couple of years, he has been involved in projects for various clients like the European Commission, NSHQ (NATO), Adobe, AS Adventure Group, NS (Dutch railways), CZ Groep, Proximus, Avery Dennison and Mediagenix.

Through We Are North, we do 'Customization-As-A-Service'. We don't build from scratch: we find the best solutions out there and tailor them to our customers' business needs. In doing so, we never lose sight of the goal of the client.

In his free time, he plays the double bass and drums, crosses the forest on his mountain bike and coaches the youth at their local football club (where he is a board member as well). He likes spending time with his wife and two kids or meeting friends for a chat, game or drink.

If he still has some time left, he mainly spends it behind his computer to fulfill his hunger for the latest trends in IT.

 

Links