[OT] Dear Google Cloud: Your Deprecation Policy is Killing You

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 8/16/20 6:03 PM, jmh530 wrote:
> Ran across this via reddit yesterday and thought people here might find 
> it interesting.
> 
> https://medium.com/@steve.yegge/dear-google-cloud-your-deprecation-policy-is-killing-you-ee7525dc05dc 

cc Walter, Atila

This article is very illustrative on how we could approach deprecation. 
We have been closer to Google's approach than Emacs' or Java's.

I've suggested this coyly for years - coyly because it seemed so unclean 
and compromise-y: we should deprecate "psychologically", by keeping 
things but using (natural) language and UX techniques to deemphasize the 
deprecated libraries and (programming) language features. Use gray text, 
smaller, italicized, slightly more difficult to read. Put it one extra 
click away. Start those sections with a RED YELLING warning. Emphasize 
disadvantages and point to better approaches. Over time, even remove 
documentation for deprecated features but leave them in. And so on. 
Emacs and Java have shown that this works.