deprecated
Said of a program or feature that is considered obsolescent
and in the process of being phased out, usually in favour of a
specified replacement. Deprecated features can,
unfortunately, linger on for many years. This term appears
with distressing frequency in standards documents when the
committees writing the documents realise that large amounts of
extant (and presumably happily working) code depend on the
feature(s) that have passed out of favour.
See also {dusty deck}.
[{Jargon File}]
(1995-04-19)