I think it is very common for code to outlast its authors in academia for non-CS/EE fields, where programming is seen more as a means to an end rather than its

I think it is very common for code to outlast its authors in academia for non-CS/EE fields, where programming is seen more as a means to an end rather than its own pursuit. For example, my wife in her Psych PhD inherited a giant hairball of Matlab code for interfacing with an eye tracker and scripting various experiments. She made her own modifications, and I helped too. The last we heard, the code is still being used. There are likely dozens of copies of it under various names, with sections commented out or added to the end. I'm sorry to hear about you not getting credit, that's inexcusable, in the same way that not accrediting the researchers who did the work in a paper or book (I have heard this story too often) is inexcusable.