&gt;  code rot or software rot — only sets in when changes are made, either to the code itself or to any of its dependencies.<p>&quot;dependencies&quot; is so vast here, that this definition (and following discussion) is completely useless.<p>A web browser &quot;depends&quot; on web standards - Netscape 3 rotted not because of changes, but because it didn&#x27;t even support HTML4 and the web moved on.<p>Older games &quot;depended&quot; on hardware CGA&#x2F;EGA&#x2F;VGA quirks, or CPU timings, that were not replicated in later models.<p>Year2K bug is &quot;rotten&quot; because 30 years have passed. The dependency is on the calendar year needed to operate in.<p>And while we&#x27;re talking about software as an organism, I believe Martin Sústrik&#x27;s &quot;Software Component&#x27;s Reproductive System&quot; essay[0] deserves more attention.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;250bpm.com&#x2F;blog:51" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;250bpm.com&#x2F;blog:51</a>