Deprecation

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Deprecation Mean?

Deprecation is the process of marking attributes or features that should be avoided by users, including Web developers. Deprecation may be applied for various reasons, including one of the most common, which is the availability of more practical and effective alternatives.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Deprecation

Applications or software programs may have deprecated features, due to security risks or damage to software and devices. Deprecation also occurs when a feature is upgraded, or an alternative option is provided. However, to avoid technical issues, such as backward compatibility, the deprecated attribute is not removed from the software until the developer can correct the problem or produce a more stable and useful code.

A good example is when a developer releases a new application programming interface (API), which then creates deprecated values. To avoid serious technical issues, the deprecated parts should never be used.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.