[Catalyst] BBC's "Perl on Rails" nuttiness

[Wade.Stuart at fallon.com]

Dave Howorth <dhoworth at mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk> wrote on 12/03/2007 05:44:06 AM:

> >>>     You have to remember that Siemens are responsible for ensuring
the
> >>>     stability of the public facing infrastructure.
> >>>     This makes it important not to introduce new modules, or upgrade
> >>>     existing modules, without an extensive
> >>>     testing period to make sure it works with all existing
> applications. The
> >>>     trouble with this is that it is easier to
> >>>     keep stable (or work around existing known problems) by not
installing
> >>>     anything new.
> >>>
> >>     Sure - but as I understand BBC is their client and this policy
makes
> >>     the life of BBC programmers pretty miserable.
> >>
> >     Yes, it does make for a pretty frustrating work environment
> >     sometimes and although Siemens should
> >     be working for the BBC it often feels like the other way around.
> >
> > Seems poorly thought out.
>
> There's one point that hasn't been stressed that I think is very
> important. The problem isn't technical, it's commercial.
>
> The BBC have outsourced some work to Siemens. It's certainly the case
> that to maintain stability Siemens would need to do testing but I
> imagine the main factor from their point of view is that *it provides
> extra revenue*. I don't know about this contract but on another I'm
> aware of they like nothing better than having the client request a new
> feature :)
>
> Without knowing the reasons why the BBC chose to outsource and the
> contract details, it really isn't possible to say whether it's a
> sensible arrangement. Sure it makes developers' lives more difficult,
> but that's not the main goal to be optimized.
>
> Cheers, Dave

Last time I dealt with a Siemans "managed" system it was using a very old
and outdated (never patched) SCO openserver install. Mind you this was 2001
and the openserver software version was from 1994 (unpatched,  still had
the -f root remote login hole).  I hope they are being better to the BBC's
bits.

-Wade