Why not Prosepo? Why not Modify Prospero?

Up until now, I have been talking about the limitations of the Prospero system.  But wouldn't it be easier to just modify Prospero instead of starting from scratch?  That's what this post is about.

I had to create a new system because:

• A total rewrite was required to get away from Erlang
• Prospero is tightly tied to Mnesia
• Prospero is not well documented

A Total Rewrite was Required to get away from Erlang

A limitation of Prospero was that finding people with Erlang experience was difficult or impossible. Using a language like Java means a total rewrite anyways.

Prospero is tightly tied to Mnesia

The database that Prospero uses, Mnesia, is very tightly coupled to Prospero.  One of Mnesia's limitations is that it doesn't cross availability zones well.  Getting Prospero to work with multiple availability zones would require replacing Mnesia - a major rewrite.  Given that situation, a total rewrite would not require too much additional effort.

Prospero is not well Documented

While Prospero (Subpub in its latest incarnation) is widely used it is not well documented in terms of comments and the like.  The amount of effort required to document Prospero would approach the effort required for a rewrite.