I like this post from Dave Rupert on lessons from old Russian small nuclear generators:

I wonder if software has a kind of digital entropy, where even good software left untouched for a short timeframe rots and stops working.

@manton @kyleve if it's got dependencies it's gonna rot

@manton I have observed that behaviour so many times. Especially with Xcode projects :-( You just need to touch them constantly to prevent it.

@numist Which for sure it has - and be it a particular operating system it builds upon. The more dependencies, the worse.

@z428 and now that I work on an operating system, they keep changing the hardware!

@numist (So no software without dependencies. That pretty much explains what we see all around us.🙂)

@manton Entropy rate is language-dependent. I have Fortran codes from 50 years ago that compile and run with little or no modification, I have Python code from 5-10 years ago that won't run today without a major overhaul.

@z428 …is this why retrocomputing has seen such a rise in popularity?

@z428 if being sentimental helps people stay sane then I'm happy for them

@numist Sure, of course. (As long as people keep these passions for themselves and stay away from trying to nudge others into using "their" choices of tools, that is. The latter is a bit challenging and tiring, then and now...)