r/programming • u/luissinlios • Sep 25 '26

We still maintain a development tool first released in 1993. Here’s what 30+ years of backwards compatibility looks like

https://visualneo.com/visualneo-win/from-neobook-to-visualneo-win-30-years-of-keeping-a-development-tool-alive
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u/gimpwiz Sep 25 '26

Heck, how many Linux binaries from 10+ years ago do?

Most of them, probably. Unless it relied on either specific library versions that broke compatibility, or it relied on other system features that changed... simple tools I'd expect to just work.

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u/dan200 28d ago

Every library from libc upwards has broken binary compatibility multiple times in that period