Talk:Software aging

Rmpf is Hrmf. - Okay, so WHAT actually it is?
"In software engineering, software aging is the lifespan of software. As the software gets older it becomes less immune and will eventually stop functioning as it should, therefore rebooting or reinstalling the software can be seen as a short term fix." Now ageing is normally understood as moving from one state to another, by the passing of time, leading to an eventual non-living, or non-functional, or dead state. Lifespan is on the other hand the amount of time, be it measured in whatever units of measurement that takes someone or something to reach from born, or functional, or living state to the above mentioned terminal, dead state. Therefore i highly doubt that, the above quoted sentence makes sense. So i fix it, by replacing "lifespan" with something better.80.98.114.70 (talk) 14:30, 6 April 2016 (UTC). Did it. But the article still starts with two quotations that pretty much say nothing. By heart I would just delete these, but they are so nicely referenced (even though meaningless), that I didn't have the heart to do so.

Still, I would like to initiate a debate over the first two quotes starting the article, and my suggestion is they should be removed as non relevant. 80.98.114.70 (talk) 14:48, 6 April 2016 (UTC).

Just to make clear which two infernal, bloated, nothingness-ladden, bullst-generator created sentences I had in mind for my proposal of deletion (mind please, that these sentences are taking the place of a useful definition in the article's lead section): "From both an academia and industry point of view, the software aging phenomenon has increased. The main focus has been to understand its effects from a verifiable observation and theoretical understanding.[1]

"Programs, like people, get old. We can't prevent aging, but we can understand its causes, take steps to limit its effects, temporarily reverse some of the damage it has caused, and prepare for the day when the software is no longer viable."[2]"

A program is a sequence of instructions.. How does a sequence of instructions age? The "article" talks about resource allocation (memory leaks, file handles, etc) and things like rebooting a machine (ahem .. "rejuvenation"). It's like saying a novel or movie has aged badly, then you take out your book or DVD and point to the tears and scratches. An actual example of software aging might be due to it relying on APIs or hardware that are no longer being maintained, user interfaces that are no longer common or don't take advantage of modern technology. "Rejuvanating" it might involve porting the logic to a newer platform. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.169.36 (talk) 17:35, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

Unclear which meaning is being talked about
At some points in this article it seems to talk about the "aging" that happens when processes of a piece of software run for a long time (with rebooting or restarting as a fix, for instance to fix memory leaks). At other times it seems to talk about the software installation getting "old" and damaged (with reinstalling as a fix). Maybe it also talks about the software itself getting old, meaning that it doesn't adapt well to the environment (operating system etc.) changing over time. So there are at least three separate meanings of "software aging", and they seem to be mixed and not clearly distinguished in the article. --Jhertel (talk) 11:06, 18 May 2019 (UTC)

Consider merging Software regression and Software rot
This article seems similar to Software regression and Software rot. Please consider merging the three into one. Timhowardriley (talk) 18:58, 10 March 2022 (UTC)