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Date:      Thu, 07 Mar 2002 21:24:56 +0000
From:      Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>
To:        nate@yogotech.com (Nate Williams)
Cc:        cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/usr.bin/rwall rwall.c 
Message-ID:  <200203072124.g27LOvRV092027@grimreaper.grondar.org>
In-Reply-To: <15495.55333.300370.385829@caddis.yogotech.com> ; from Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com>  "Thu, 07 Mar 2002 14:14:13 MST."
References:  <15495.55333.300370.385829@caddis.yogotech.com> 

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> > There is no clear direction in the above statement, although it has
> > elements of truth from several disparate arguments.
> > 
> > "Good reason" == "code rot".
> 
> Code can not 'rot'.  If it works, it works.  All the rest of the
> arguments are based on the invalid assumption.

I disagree.

If an API ir function changes, and a program does not have the
information necessary to warn you of any problems that crop up, the
code is said to have rotted.

If you port code to a compiler or system that is different in some
important way, and the compiler has not enough information to handle
introduced incompatibilities, you have an analagous problem.

If FreeBSD was to upgrade the C compiler (Gee, when are we ever
going to do that?), things _will_ change. These things (if problematic
in client code) are usually referred to as code rot if left unfixed
or crudely patched over.

M
-- 
o       Mark Murray
\_
O.\_    Warning: this .sig is umop ap!sdn

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