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Written by Daniel S. Katz on 2025-01-13 at 21:43

"Tales of Transitions: Seeking Scientific Software Sustainability" by Johanna Cohoon, Caifan Du, James Howison

https://doi.org/10.1145/3701208

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Written by Hanno Rein on 2025-01-14 at 12:38

@danielskatz Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but is sustainability universally a good thing? I can think of several projects in astronomy/astrophysics which have been around for a long time, have grown to enormous code bases, and are well adopted. However, I think some of these projects should go away to make space for something completely new and better. Having non-ideal legacy software that is well supported and maintained prevents innovation.

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Written by Daniel S. Katz on 2025-01-14 at 13:04

@hannorein

Hi - I don't disagree with your point, but this study looked at projects that aimed to become sustainable after a grant, and if they succeeded.

On your larger question, I wrote something related to it last year: https://danielskatzblog.wordpress.com/2023/12/07/make-or-buy-decisions/

Overall, it's a complicated discussion, and yes, sustaining a particular software package isn't always the right answer for the research community.

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