It sucked, and I should have just started using bstring right away, but I was going with the inspiration at the time and wanted to get something working to see if the idea of HTTP->0mq was viable. As you can see, it didn't take very long to switch at that stage, just a couple days. Now if I'd waited it would have been a total nightmare and probably impossible.

First up, I had some unit tests, which are essential if you want to be able to pivot like this suddenly. Second, I knew a lot about the tools I could use so I had a clear idea of how to attack the problem. Finally, it's just a matter of picking the smallest little piece, converting it, and then stepping through all the parts that piece touches. Kind of like spreading a virus.