I am under the impression that software degrades over time because it is copied and re-written as it is opened and closed.

 

Am I right? If I am wrong, why does software degrade over time?

More information:

 

I am having trouble with software running on an old Windows platform; the system does not have Sleep Mode and Defrag is NOT available [i think Defrag is on the computer, but has been locked out], so that can not be the source of the crashes.

 

The application [a generally rugged commericial application] opens and sets up fine, but I get a sharing violation when I try to run it.

Software should not degrade over time. I assume you have the software on a harddrive. The basic program will not vary by a single bit from the time it is installed. Any writing and re-writing will be restricted to the data used by the program.

However, these data may fall into two categories, which I'll call setup data and process data. [i'm sure the programming community has much fancier terms for these.]

Setup data in a program such as Excel, for example, would include options relating to the appearance of the work sheet, which you had established in an earlier session. This data would be written to your hard drive and then re-read when you next opened the program. Process data would, to continue the Excel example, the numbers placed in the spreadsheet cells.

If there is damage or corruption of the hard disc that affects the program it is likely that the program will fail.

If there is damage or corruption to the setup data the program may function partially.

If there is damage or corruption to the process data you just wont be able to access that particualr data set properly or at all.

 

Does this help at all?

I am under the impression that software degrades over time because it is copied and re-written as it is opened and closed.

 

Am I right? If I am wrong' date=' why does software degrade over time?[/quote']

 

Copying errors could be part of it, but more likely, a configuration file becomes too large or DLLs get corrupted.

 

Depends on the OS, of course.