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Since maintaining code is such a large portion of a software developer's life, maybe it's not surprising that there is a tag. However, it's a meta-tag, and none of the questions I've found would suffer from losing it.

  • No tag wiki
  • 16 questions (1 already closed)

This tag doesn't merit full burnination (ala Shog's post), but some community input would be appreciated, as I propose to kill the tag off.

Other similar tags to be considered:

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    "Maintaining code is such a large portion of a software developer's life..." and "it's a waste of time", this title pun makes me sad. Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 2:18
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    @approxiblue I tried more positive puns, but they didn't work. Maybe "Everyone hates [maintaining-code]" or "No more [maintaining-code]"?
    – Mogsdad
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 2:20
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    I'd agree. There are more specific practices covered by "maintaining code" that are more focused and useful, like refactoring, debuggers, unit - tests and so on. Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 6:57
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    @TimBarrass Tags for refactoring you say... I'd expect a separate burnination post for that. Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 15:52
  • maintainability is not a meta tag
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 19:22
  • @approxiblue: Questions about tools used by programmers that solve problems unique to software development are on-topic, refactoring certainly meets those criteria.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 19:23
  • @BenVoigt What evidence backs up that statement? (maintainabiliy is not a meta tag)
    – Mogsdad
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 23:43
  • @Mogsdad: The meaning of "meta"? maintainability is after all, a property of the code, not the greater context where the developer encountered that code. meta tags like homework or code-maintenance describe that greater context, not the code itself, which is what makes them meta.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Sep 13, 2015 at 23:47
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    @BenVoigt Would you defend readability? These are not good tags: they tend to attract opinion-based answers. You say they describe the code, that doesn't mean they describe the content of the question. You're using the dictionary definition of meta, not the SO definition. Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 4:48
  • I didn't say it was a good tag, I said it was not a meta tag. Meta and bad are not synonymous.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 4:57
  • BTW the three tags in that blog post are metatags. The rest of the post, is just wrong. Ambiguous and meta are not synonyms either. If you want an accepted definition, better point to a meta question that was voted on, not a blog post that represents one non-expert opinion.
    – Ben Voigt
    Commented Sep 14, 2015 at 5:01

1 Answer 1

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After at least five years has only one follower, which I take as a sign it is not of much use, of which further signs are no usage guidance and no wiki.

Excluding deleted posts, it is presently applied 13 times, once on a closed question.

Only for one of the open questions is it the only tag:

If it ain't broke don't fix or upgrade it

This seems to be very much a matter of opinion (that there are 11 answers is some indication of that) so I have VTC’d it.

That leaves 11 questions:

How to update old C code?

Question is more than 5 years old and again seems to, now, be off topic as too much a matter of opinion (11 answers). One of which (+19) is:

This shoehorning into C++ seems to be arbitrary, ask your boss why he needs that done, figure out if you can meet the same goal less painfully, see if you can prototype a subset in the new less painful way, then go and demo to your boss and recommend that you follow the less painful way.

How to determine if an existing class can be unit-tested?

Questions are:

Is there any good article you recommend on guidelines which help to identify classes which are easier to unit-test?

and

Do you have any advice of your own?

So IMO now off topic on two counts (‘recommendations’ and ‘opinion’).

Matching ASP.NET source code to a compiled web application

Question is:

Is there any way to determine which (if any) of those versions is the one actually deployed to the production web site?

IMO does not require (has three others).

maintain MPI version and non MPI version in a convenient way

Seems to me may be appropriate here. However already tagged which would seem adequate.

From Visual Studio projects to CMake projects

Has a Comment:

possible duplicate of vcxproj to cmake

which links to a similar question which is not tagged .

Provide version to independent files in clearcase

Already tagged (and ) seems to me to add nothing of value.

GWT Modify file on server

Seems to me may be appropriate here. However already tagged which would seem adequate.

Fragments seems to be overkill? No MVC architecture possible?

Question is:

Whats your opinion and advice about fragments?

Three answers, including one from OP. This might not be as much a matter of opinion as first appears but other existing tags: would seem fully adequate.

Compact or renumber IDs for all tables, and reset sequences to max(id)?

Verging on off topic for including:

Or is there any plugin or maintaining utility for this job?

The question is at least as much about renumbering IDs in a database as anything of a code maintenance nature. IMO should be removed as more misleading than helpful.

How to maintain different portlet codebases for Liferay 6.0 and 6.1

Seems to me may be appropriate here. However already tagged which would seem adequate and perhaps more misleading than helpful.

Syntax error in complex macro expansion for some, but not all compilers

A question asked over three years ago with requests for clarification from that time that have not been respected with responses. OP has seemingly not revisited for over three years. 163 views and net -1, this question should IMO be deleted.

So there may be some argument for being of some relevance to two or three questions but out of over 10M and since not concerning a new technology (hence unlikely to be required, if at all, much more frequently in the near term) it is better to kill it off now than to preserve it and write the usage guidance and wiki for it.

Note I am not addressing the other tags in this OP in view of (i) a dim recollection of some advice that each burnination request should focus on a single tag (though I believe that was with the caveat of the kind “or a closely related group of tags”) and (ii) trying to justify removing 12 tags is more than tedious enough.

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