[Asterisk-Dev] removing depreciated code?

[SteveK]

On Sep 23, 2005, at 2:16 PM, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk wrote:

>>> asterisk cvs head still has lots of 'depreciated' code such as  
>>> striplsd/stripmsd, incominglimit in chan_sip etc etc etc. perhaps  
>>> it'll be a good idea to remove the depreciated code, including  
>>> the jump to +101 etc to get 1.2 clean and neat. less code is less  
>>> bugs and less bugs is a higher level of stability, and stability  
>>> is something asterisk really needs.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Last time we talked about it, the plan is to start pulling all of  
>> this stuff out after 1.2.  In 1.2, deprecation warnings will be  
>> printed to the CLI when you use most of the deprecated  
>> applications.  We don't want to cause unnecessary headache for  
>> those trying to upgrade.  Another thing we don't want is more  
>> delays for releasing 1.2.
>>
>
> one more thing... if the deprecated/obsoleted parts of asterisk are  
> removed, people will forced to use the new replacements, testing  
> them more thoroughly and thereby helping asterisk 1.2 to stabilise  
> more quickly

The whole point of "deprecation" is to leave the feature enabled for  
at least one release, where the feature is marked as deprecated.  Use  
of the deprecated feature is discouraged, either through  
documentation or warnings.

Removing such basic features without warning is pretty rude to the  
end users, which seems to be why it's been avoided for such  
widespread things like n+101.

Life isn't always so simple;  Less code doesn't always mean fewer  
bugs -- sometimes fewer changes mean fewer bugs, and sometimes  
leaving code alone entails less risk than trying to remove something  
(where it's very likely something will break in the process).  In  
real life,  sometimes, it's better to leave the shrapnel or bullet in  
a person, than to cut them open and try to remove it..

-SteveK