What exactly defines production?

definition semantics production
dsimcha picture dsimcha · Jan 29, 2009 · Viewed 11.2k times · Source

Like almost anyone who's been programming for a while, I'm familiar with the term "production code" and have a vague sense of what it means. However, can someone offer a semi-rigorous definition, since it seems Wikipedia and Google can't? It seems like there are a lot of gray areas in what counts as production, such as internal tools that are used by a small group of people and therefore not "formalized" in terms of UI, documentation, etc. and open source apps that are feature complete, reasonably bug free and working, but lack polish, UI and extensive testing.

Answer

Jeff picture Jeff · Jan 29, 2009

When your code runs on a production system, that means it is being used by the intended audience in a real-world situation.

Production code, however, does not necessarily mean robust, reliable, or stable code. The Daily WTF provides plenty of evidence in this regard.

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