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dockdyesterday at 4:35 PM1 replyview on HN

How is this for a rule of thumb: the time it takes to fix a bug is directly related to the age of the software.


Replies

ChrisMarshallNYyesterday at 7:01 PM

That's also a "It Depends™" thing.

Really old software can be referred to as "Mature," as opposed to "Decrepit." It can be extremely well-documented, and well-understood. Many times, there are tools that grow up, alongside the main code.

I wrote stuff that was still in use, 25 years later, because the folks that took it over, did a really good job of maintaining it.