+1 for TeX. Also programs that have been formally proven correct (mostly small-scale critical systems such as the braking system in the TGV).
With Hubble, it's the hardware that's decayed, not the software :-)
Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
11–20 of 26 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#12I think it depends on what ones means by finished.
Cars need maintenance after being finished on the manufacturing line. So I would say if the functionality isn't changing, then it is finished and the other parts are maintenance.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#13Wouldn't any gaming systems with cartridges be considered finished? Atari, Nintendo, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#14I replaced a 17-year-old Panasonic Inverter microwave oven with a new one. The firmware seems almost the same. The only differences I spotted:
1. "Quick min" (increment by 60 seconds) has become +30 (increment by 30 seconds)
2. When the microwave is done cooking, and starts beeping, the beeps stop immediately when the door is opened. The 17-year-old model rang out its beeps regardless of door state.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#15Bryan Cantrill: http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2004/08/28/the-economics-of-soft... >> software does not wear out. That isn’t to say that software never breaks (or isn’t broken to begin with), but software that works can work in perpetuity. A favorite example of mine is troff . The source for troff is some of the nastiest stuff ever written — but it works. It hasn’t been touched in years, and probably will never be: it’s…
GNU troff is maintained, though.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#16ls, cd and so on. Small tools with limited features. Unix approach.
GNU CoreUtils ls is evolving. One example of that is that it can quote names with spaces in them and has started doing so by default.
Here a search for "ls:", of the GNU CoreUtils mailing list:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/cgi-bin/namazu.cgi?query=ls%3A...
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#17The V2.00 ROM in my 1987-dated ADA MP-1 guitar pre-amp(Z80 processor) isn't going anywhere.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#18Windows 95 and other such operating systems.
Also software running on old toys like Pokedexes and other non-updateable electronics, like MP3 players, cd players, DVRs, microwave ovens, computer monitors, non-smart TVs, non-smart digital watches, and digital cameras.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#19What about all those old government systems we keep hearing about, IRS, Unemployment Offices, etc that are essentially untouchable because they were programmed in something ancient like COBOL to run on mainframes? They're running in emulators now, interfacing with layers and layers of abstraction in modern languages, but by the very nature of the situation they will probably never be updated or altered, because if the immense will to so do existed, a whole new system would probably be made instead. That sounds like "finished" to me.
Re: Ask HN: Is there any software that can be considered finished?
#20Wouldn't any gaming systems with cartridges be considered finished? Atari, Nintendo, etc.
People make rom hacks all the time. Do the changes have to be from an "official" source to count?