On Sun, 29 May 2016 16:46:22 +0200
Edward Bartolo <edbarx@???> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I contest the idea that software has to be continuously developed.
> Eventually, proper development stop like what happens with a building.
> Then, maintenance follows. This means as long as software has bug
> fixes (maintenance), there would be no justified reason not to use it.

Yeah, you know, you're right Edward. I just never thought of it like
that.

I use Fetchmail every 5 minutes via cron. AFAIK Eric Raymond hasn't
touched Fetchmail in years: It already works and does what's needed.
People tell me I should use a more modern, "still maintained" program
to get my mail. Why? Fetchmail works.

I use TeX for document formatting, on occasion. Donald Knuth long ago
stopped maintaining TeX, when it became impossible for people to find
further bugs. It does the job it was intended to do, so I still use it
for that type of job.

I use grep every day. How often is grep modified?

You're right. If a program is simple enough to finally get all the bugs
out of it, that's the golden age of that program.

SteveT

Steve Litt
May 2016 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21