Django-hosted aurweb Proposal

[Loui Chang]

On Sat 16 Feb 2019 17:21 -0800, Kevin Morris wrote:
> The following is a proposal for a Django-hosted aurweb application. It is
> meant to be a drop-in replacement for aur.archlinux.org; effectively
> cloning its user interface and capabilities into a Python Django extension.
> 
> Following https://patchwork.archlinux.org/patch/1000/, I would like to put
> together a new aurweb.

I'm a bit confused. You wrote one patch and you want to rewrite the whole thing
now? I've seen this at least three times before with more or less fully
developed rewrites. They all failed. They were all written in Python
coincidentally.

> The current revamped version of archweb runs inside of a django server as a
> django extension (or app). I would like to do this same thing for `aurweb`.
> The new django `aurweb` shall support all of the current v1-6 capabilities
> that aurweb provides, as well as the front-end user website located at
> https://aur.archlinux.org.

archweb was already written in python for django more than 10 yrs ago.
I guess it may not have been an extension (or app), whatever that is.
I imagine the porting/migration if any would have been much more trivial than
a full rewrite.

> It shall be an exact clone from the user's perspective.

This is a very uncompelling reason to rewrite the whole thing.

> The major differences between maintaining a PHP vs Django server would be
> that the Django server would be:

Users don't care about any of your six bullet points.
 
> I would like to hear your thoughts on this. If approved, I would love to
> begin this project within the next few weeks.

Begin the project now and don't make it the same. Make it better.
Nobody is gonna approve vaporware.
Steal users from the AUR.
Convince people your system really is better.
Good luck.