A tounge in cheek explanation from programmers as to why an old program no longer works, even if it hasn't been touched in years.
Also applys to the decay of physical storage mediums.
Also applys to the decay of physical storage mediums.
by Whatarandom September 5, 2006
Either (1) the tendency for data stored on a digital medium to decay in quality, so that the contents are corrupted or (2) the tendency for software to mysteriously stop working after a period of time, despite no changes to the code.
My coworkers were angry at me that my program stopped working. I told them, "I tested it a few weeks ago, and it worked then! The failure must be due to bit rot."
by DonaldAlan September 12, 2021