As the saying goes, People Who Say It Cannot Be Done Should Not Interrupt Those Who Are Doing It, eh?
We already have exactly this scope problem in the current project with the bits of the API that are duplicated in cgimap, OSM doesn’t need the Rails versions, they are just there for use outside of OSM.
So what is the issue you’re having really with @NorthCrab attempt?
Either @NorthCrab will manage to pull it off, or he won’t. It’s not out of yours (or mine) pocket. I also have serious doubts that it is doable and would certainly not bet my own money on success (mainly due to politics in OSM, and not his technical ability or technical superiority of new solution!), but the guy seems all-in on it and full of youthful enthusiasm, so I wish him all the luck. It’s his engineer-months on the line, not mine.
I say let him do it and then see see how good/bad the results is. It is like being given free box of lottery tickets – why not take it, even if you know the chances of winning are very low? It’s free!
For the record, I certainly much prefer python to ruby on rails (although I don’t really program in either, but have tried to dabble in both, with hugely more success in python attempts). I hugely appreciate the herculean effort that RoR maintainers are putting on that code base, but if we are expecting new contributors to jump in, ruby on rails is IMHO bad choice. But hey, I’ll at least admit the time has run down that chance to rewrite OSM in perl (which is my preferred go-to language)…
Just like I don’t REALLY believe Elon Musk will succeed on putting people son Mars this decade (much less by 2026), but I sure applaud the dream and enthusiasm and effort and money and [if you insist] pure crazieness pumped into it by people who do believe in it, and DO like to watch those gargantuan rockets (attempting to) take off, whichever their fate may turn out to be. Excitement guaranteed! At least it is attempting to move somewhere in human lifetime, even if it won’t work. If I were to place my bet on NASA or ESA for that dream, you can guess why the enthusiasm would be lacking… s/NASA/Ruby on rails/g; s/SpaceX/python/g; 