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Which software projects have proven to be the most maintainable over many years?

2 points by yug_blop ↗ HN
I'm looking for some examples of codebases that have managed to be very maintainable for many years. What kind of initial (and continued) design decisions were made? I would especially appreciate it if I could get suggestions for more in depth readings about each software project. It would also be nice to see projects adressing a range of problems and domains.

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jbreckmckye
This is a difficult one. It's easy to point to codebases that indeed have been maintained for many years - but that doesn't mean they were designed well.

Look at a project like SVGEdit. It's by far and away the most popular open source project for in-browser SVG manipulation. It is the "most maintained" repository for any software in its niche. It is also a five thousand line blob of jQuery code.

That's an extreme example, but the point is: a project could become beacons for OSS development not because it is amenable to change, but because it is a very useful or prominent tool.