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Laws of Software Evolution
Andrew Kelly has written a thoughtful article on why we can’t have nice software. He acknowledges that software often gets continuous maintenance, and notes that this is curious, since “bits don’t actually rot” on their own, i.e.
2 On understanding laws, evolution, and conservation in the large-program life cycle; Lehman; Journal of Systems and Software; 1980. When problems are solved with quick hacks, the second law of software evolution is accelerated, and thus maintenance will cost more and more as time goes on. On a long time frame, such as in that case, the better choice is to spend more on fixes up front, to reduce the total cost.
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