I’m curious how software can be created and evolve over time. I’m afraid that at some point, we’ll realize there are issues with the software we’re using that can only be remedied by massive changes or a complete rewrite.

Are there any instances of this happening? Where something is designed with a flaw that doesn’t get realized until much later, necessitating scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch?

  • Spectranox@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    35·
    7 months ago

    What was stopping X just undergoing some gutting? I get it’s old and covered in dust and cobwebs but look, those can be cleaned off.

    “Scoop out the tumors, and put some science stuff in ya”, the company that produced that quote went on to develop the most advanced AGI in the world and macro-scale portable on-demand indestructible teleportation.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      32·
      7 months ago

      Because we no longer have mainframes in computer labs. Each person now has there own machine.

            • PrimalHero@kbin.social
              1·
              7 months ago

              What part of 40 year old code that is so messed up that it’s not cleanable any more do you not understand.

                • nyan@sh.itjust.works
                  2·
                  7 months ago

                  Simply put, no one with the necessary skills has come forward and demonstrated the willingness to do the work. No programmer I’ve ever met enjoys wrestling with other people’s crufty old code. It isn’t fun, it isn’t creative, and it’s often an exercise in, “What the unholy fsck was whoever wrote this thinking, and where did I put the ‘Bang head here’ mousepad?” So getting volunteers to mop out the bilges only happens when someone really wants to keep a particular piece of software working. It’s actually more difficult than getting people to contribute to a new project.

                  So getting rid of X’s accumulated legacy cruft isn’t impossible, but I suspect someone would need to set up the “Clean up X” foundation and offer money for it to actually happen. (I’m no happier about that than you, by the way.)