HACKER Q&A
📣 vanilla-almond

Using pre-1.0 software in production. How do you decide?


How do you decide to use a pre-1.0 (open-source) programming language or package/library for production apps?

Example scenarios:

- Using a pre-1.0 programming language

- Using a pre-1.0 library or package

- Looking at the popularity (downloads) of a pre-1.0 package to influence whether to use.

Are you using a pre-1.0 language or library in production (or building a product)? Or do you consider it too risky for production use?

  👤 mattpallissard Accepted Answer ✓
Pretty regularly. Every situation is different but generally I just ask myself;

Is the code-base sane enough / do I have the skills to patch or re-write it myself if things go sideways? Would I have written this anyway?

If yes, then I put a small abstraction layer between the api and my code, then put it through my vetting processes.

The questions I ask typically goe with any library, not just a pre-release. But the abstraction layer I'll often omit if it's a package that's been around for a while.