How to use the word “deprecation” correctly

alanhogan.com

1 pointalanh4 comments

This article oddly includes "depreciation", but (anecdotally) I've never heard of this being confused with "deprecation".

I think, instead, they should have included "obsoletion", which I think is what is more often confused/overlooked in favor of using "deprecated" to mean something that has already been obsoleted.

That is, "deprecated" is often incorrectly used as a synonym for "obsoleted".

"This article oddly includes "depreciation", but (anecdotally) I've never heard of this being confused with "deprecation"."

Then you may be in for an instance of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon [1] now. It's very widespread. Sometimes it feels like I see "depreciation" more than "deprecation". I've even heard people say out loud "depreciation" several times.

[1]: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human...

Thank you for reading and for your suggestion to include "obsolete". That’s a great alternative for the confused usage of deprecate!

Ideally, when an element is deprecated, the deprecation notice provides clues toward replacements for the unfortunate user bitten by the deprecation. Too many API's drop capabilities without a hint of what downstream developers should do to preserve application behavior.

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