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It doesn't acquire bugs just by sitting around on your hard drive. Except when sometimes it does. That is, external factors reveal old bugs or introduce new on

by stinos 11y ago

It doesn't acquire bugs just by sitting around on your hard drive. Except when sometimes it does. That is, external factors reveal old bugs or introduce new ones. Like when you use it after installing a new package/driver/OS and it blows up. Or after years you give it to a new crazy user which somehow succeeds it hitting 20 keys at a time and your code doesn't handle that. I'm not saying occasions like those require a complete rewrite, just that it's not because code has been fine for 10years that it is bugfree and needs no more work ever. (though in cases like this switching to a proven lib for handling key input if such a thing even exist might be a solution - which then introduces new problems like more dependencies and bugs in that lib making your own software not working properly and so on and so on:)

brudgers 11y ago
There are also latent bugs which are inconceivable at design time and only become possible after several cycles of Moore's law. http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/06/extra-extra-read-all-about-it-nearly.html?m=1 http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/06/extra-extra-read-...
- knodi123 11y ago
  I remember I once went to great trouble to use a succession of old computers to copy my favorite DOS game off of a 5 1/4" floppy into a 3 1/2" floppy, and then from there onto a network, and then onto my laptop, so I could take it to school with me. And in the end, I learned that the game ran so fast on my laptop that your character would move at light speed and then die as soon as you pressed a button, because my laptop was too fast. There was nothing wrong with the program, it just didn't expect to still be in use 17 years later.
  - im3w1l 11y ago
    If you still want to play it, dosbox supports adjusting emulation speed.
    - knodi123 11y ago
      I kinda do, actually. maybe I will. It was this game if you're curious: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/the-black-cauldron/ http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/the-black-cauldron/
rando3826 11y ago
aka bitrot
- inDigiNeous 11y ago
  Bitrot means degradation of physical media containing digital data, not really anyting to do with bugs appearing in code that is introduced into a new environment.
  - tokenrove 11y ago
    It has been used almost interchangably with code rot in this sense for a long time: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/bit-rot.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/bit-rot.html
  - DougBTX 11y ago
    > The Jargon File, a compendium of hacker's lore, defines "bit rot" as a jocular explanation for the degradation of a software program over time even if "nothing has changed"; the idea being this is almost as if the bits that make up the program were subject to radioactive decay. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot

by stinos 11y ago

brudgers 11y ago

There are also latent bugs which are inconceivable at design time and only become possible after several cycles of Moore's law. http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/06/extra-extra-read-all-about-it-nearly.html?m=1 http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2006/06/extra-extra-read-...

knodi123 11y ago
I remember I once went to great trouble to use a succession of old computers to copy my favorite DOS game off of a 5 1/4" floppy into a 3 1/2" floppy, and then from there onto a network, and then onto my laptop, so I could take it to school with me. And in the end, I learned that the game ran so fast on my laptop that your character would move at light speed and then die as soon as you pressed a button, because my laptop was too fast. There was nothing wrong with the program, it just didn't expect to still be in use 17 years later.
- im3w1l 11y ago
  If you still want to play it, dosbox supports adjusting emulation speed.
  - knodi123 11y ago
    I kinda do, actually. maybe I will. It was this game if you're curious: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/the-black-cauldron/ http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/the-black-cauldron/

rando3826 11y ago

aka bitrot

inDigiNeous 11y ago
Bitrot means degradation of physical media containing digital data, not really anyting to do with bugs appearing in code that is introduced into a new environment.
- tokenrove 11y ago
  It has been used almost interchangably with code rot in this sense for a long time: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/bit-rot.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/B/bit-rot.html
- DougBTX 11y ago
  > The Jargon File, a compendium of hacker's lore, defines "bit rot" as a jocular explanation for the degradation of a software program over time even if "nothing has changed"; the idea being this is almost as if the bits that make up the program were subject to radioactive decay. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot