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0 pointsjefft2556y ago0 comments

Lot’s of code is simply unmaintained. The guy that wrote it is gone, it’s still running fine so nobody is touching it. Businesses don’t want to take the risk and spend the money to upgrade it. Maybe you don’t realize the insane amount of code that is in this state!!

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3 comments · 2 top-level

6gvONxR4sf7o6y ago· 1 in thread

In some ways that's the whole point of code. You want to get to forget about it doing all these things without you.

takeda6y ago

If that's the case then 2.7.18 will continue working and probably it is a bad idea to port it. A lot of work for minimum gain.

But if you actively changing the code, the maintenance will get more and more expensive. With packages dropping python 2 support if you discover a bug in one of your dependencies and fix is in package that no longer work on python 2 you'll need to backport the fix (and maintain your fork) or migrate your code.

JimDabell6y ago

If you depend on an unmaintained codebase where the original developers are no longer available, then that's a substantial business risk by itself.

Too many software development projects are treated as one-off events where people commission them and assume they will work forever without updates. Software requires maintenance, and people who commission software development projects without planning on how they are going to be maintained in the future are taking on risk. Any risk involved in updating that abandoned code in future is a consequence of that decision.

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