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I have a project I shelved a while back- it was essentially a working web app built in django but I stopped working on it to work on something else.

I plan on starting it up again in my spare time, but I'm wondering if it's worth converting a django project with about 5kloc to Rails. I'm considering this because I've been told that it'll be easier for other people to work on and easier to work on myself.

I don't have any ruby or rails experience: is it worth learning ruby, rails and then converting my django project to Rails? I understand it's a bit of a loaded / language war kind of question but would appreciate any input.

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I personally don't think so, it'd have been rewarding if you already knew ruby and rails, but since you don't, I think you shouldn't bother porting it. – Mahmoud Hossam Aug 22 '12 at 4:57
Quite difficult to say without a lot more knowledge about environment and who works on it. Sure there are most likely more people around working with Rails, but will they ever work on it at all? For yourself nobody can answer if it's worth your time to learn Rails. As it stands, the question is off topic and can't be answered in any serious way. – thorsten müller Aug 22 '12 at 8:11
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In a professional setting, I'd say no, it's definitely not worth it learning a new language just for one project. Python and Django are just fine and perhaps all you need to do is refactor your codebase. That said, if you are looking for an opportunity to familiarize yourself with Ruby and RoR, then go for it. – Yannis Rizos♦ Aug 22 '12 at 11:26
If you want to learn rails and are not making money on it, sure. Else no. – Rig Aug 22 '12 at 16:47

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Five KLOC isn't very much. If you would rather continue with Rails, go ahead. It will only take you a couple of days. You will almost certainly make improvements as you go, so when you finish you will have made some engineering progress. If the spirit moves you, then do it.

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5KLoc is not much for a team of developers, for 1 guy working on it on the weekends it is a chunk of code. I would not port it unless there was some really good reason. Python Django are a good framework – Zachary K Aug 22 '12 at 18:59
@ZacharyK: once he has converted the first 200 lines, the rest will go really quickly. Python and Ruby aren't that far apart. – kevin cline Aug 24 '12 at 4:21
Its a judgement call, I probably wound't unless learning ruby (or improving my ruby skills) was a goal I was working on. – Zachary K Aug 24 '12 at 11:22
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It depends on why you want to pick the project back up.

If you are more interested and excited about adding features or functionality to your app, then leave it in python/django, and concentrate on the functionality.

If you are more interested in learning something new, like RoR, then start fresh with a new, simple project, and then figure out if you want to port your app.

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