16 lines
838 B
Plaintext
16 lines
838 B
Plaintext
backward combatability
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/bakw@rd k@mbat'@bil'@tee/ , n. [CMU, Tektronix: from backward compatibility
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] A property of hardware or software revisions in which previous protocols,
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formats, layouts, etc. are irrevocably discarded in favor of new and
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improved protocols, formats, and layouts, leaving the previous ones not
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merely deprecated but actively defeated. (Too often, the old and new
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versions cannot definitively be distinguished, such that lingering instances
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of the previous ones yield crashes or other infelicitous effects, as opposed
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to a simple version mismatch message.) A backwards compatible change, on the
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other hand, allows old versions to coexist without crashes or error
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messages, but too many major changes incorporating elaborate backwards
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compatibility processing can lead to extreme software bloat. See also flag
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day.
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