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What Happens To Code From Failed Projects?

Posted by Soulskill on from the great-compiler-in-the-sky dept.

Idzuna writes "With the somewhat recent announcement of Tabula Rasa shutting down, I have been thinking about what will happen to the Server/Client code. Does it get used as a guide for other projects? Does it get destroyed? Or does it just sit there on a hard drive somewhere in storage? The same question applies to many other failed creations. I know the likelihood of the code being distributed freely is next to nil, as most companies probably recycle code. If a vulnerability was found in old code, it could be applied to other products that the company has released. But wouldn't it help development of different projects if such a resource was available?"

7 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Code Heaven by Gerafix · · Score: 5, Funny

    They go to the little /dev/null in the sky.

  2. we do. by Samschnooks · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...as most companies probably recycle code.

    We recycle code. We have to separate it ourselves though. There are code bins for C, Java, Javascript, Perl, and Python. It's pain though! Every semester some intern puts Javascript code in the Java bin and the other way around!

    But it beats having the code end up in a landfill!

  3. Depends by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

    That really depends, if it fails really badly then it gets buried.

    --
    Summation 2
  4. No one can really know for sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some have described a tunnel of bright light where the code executes in an infinite loop forever.

    Others theorize an ultimate review where code structure is judged. Good code may branch anywhere at anytime with an infinite clock speed and infinite memory space regardless of pointer size. It is said that in the code afterlife, even vista will run quickly. Bad code, say like MS BOB, will spend eternity in some embedded device like a clapper or firmware that controls a japanese toilet.
     

    1. Re:No one can really know for sure by torstenvl · · Score: 5, Funny

      Some have described a tunnel of bright light where the code executes in an infinite loop forever.

      As opposed to an infinite loop which doesn't last forever? :-)


      int main(void) {
          int i = 0;
          while (1) {
              if (i<10) {
                  doSomethingTenTimesInAnInfiniteLoopButNotForever();
                  i++;
              }
              doSomethingForever();
          }
          return 0; /* purely academic */
      }

  5. I know this one! by xactuary · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doh! It gets patched every second Tuesday of the month.

    --
    Say hello to my little sig.
  6. Corporate Asset by GrayNimic · · Score: 5, Informative

    When EA shut down Earth & Beyond, there were the typical calls for the server software to be released. Amazingly enough, they actually did get a response: that the code for the backend of an MMO represents a huge investment by a company, and that they (EA) would not release the code for two basic reasons. One, access to the code (source, libraries, decompilable libraries, whatever) for a fully functional MMO would be a huge leg-up for competitors attempting to enter the field. Two, the code represents a base that can be used for other projects, and releasing a version of that base could be a liability to those future projects. For those two reasons, the chances of EA in any way supporting community-run servers would be nil.

    Not stellar news (nor surprising), but the one pseudo-official response I have ever actually seen. And it does make sense, to me at least.