Deprecate Like You Mean It
2 days ago
- #deprecation
- #software-maintenance
- #api-design
- Deprecation warnings often go unheeded, leading to broken code when deprecated features are removed.
- The article suggests making deprecated functions return wrong results occasionally to highlight the urgency of updating.
- Initially, wrong results should be rare (e.g., 1 in a million), increasing over time to make delaying maintenance costly.
- This approach makes the economic trade-off of delaying updates more tangible, encouraging timely maintenance.