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by dragonwriter 998 days ago
> I personally don't believe refactoring should ever be part of "maintenance".

Of course it shouldn’t, because software maintenance does not exist. Programs don’t degrade with use. All “maintenance” on software is, like new development, the implementation of new context->behavior combinations, and calling it something different is a result of applying an inappropriate physical-product metaphor.
2 comments
JohnBooty 998 days ago 

    Of course it shouldn’t, because software maintenance 
    does not exist. Programs don’t degrade with use
This is some real pedantic gymnastics and you're not even correct.

The word "maintenance" doesn't imply some kind of physical product metaphor. Sorry. That's not what the word means.

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SideburnsOfDoom 998 days ago
> software maintenance does not exist

There are several activities in software that are similar to maintenance of physical products. e.g.

* that parsing library that you used 2 years ago and was in good working order then, is now outdated and has known vulnerabilities that are not present in the latest version, apply update.

* Those cloud-hosted databases that you use are an older version that the cloud vendor has deprecated and will some time withdraw support for, apply migration to a later one.

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