How long is long enough?

[Hal Murray]

esr at thyrsus.com said:
> I disagree with Fred, because 292 years is way too short an era.

Will our code be around in 292 years?

How long would it take to make you happy?

I assume the answer depends on the context.  For something like POSIX, I'd 
prefer something longer than 292 years but might accept that if it solved the 
problem and seemed better/cleaner than the alternatives.

For usage internal to a project like this, I'd be happy with 100 years.  
That's assuming it will go through various major changes over time.

Has anybody done studies of project lifetimes?  How many of them stay around 
for 10 or 25 years without major changes?

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Would it be better to have short eras so the code gets debugged?  1/2 :)

The usual nasty example that comes up in the context of leap seconds is a 
spare sitting on the shelf for N years.


-- 
These are my opinions.  I hate spam.