Software rot (bit rot, code rot, software erosion, software decay, or software entropy) is either a slow deterioration of software quality over time or its diminishing responsiveness that will eventually lead to software becoming faulty, unusable, or in need of upgrade. This is not a physical phenomenon: the software does not actually decay, but rather suffers from a lack of being responsive and updated with respect to the changing environment in which it resides. The Jargon File, a compendium of hacker lore, defines "bit rot" as a jocular explanation for the degradation of a software program over time even if "nothing has changed"; the idea behind this is almost as if the bits that make up the program were subject to radioactive decay. Causes Several factors are responsible for software rot, including changes to the environment in which the software operates, degradation of compatibility between parts of the software itself, and the appearance of bugs in unused or rarely used code. Environment change When changes occur in the program's environment, particularly changes which the designer of the program did not anticipate, the software may no longer operate as originally intended. For example, many early computer game designers used the CPU clock speed as a timer in their games. However, newer CPU clocks were faster, so the gameplay speed increased accordingly, making the games less usable over time. Onceability There are changes in the environment not related to the program's designer, but its users. Initially, a user could bring the system into working order, and have it working flawlessly for a certain amount of time. But, when the system stops working correctly, or the users want to access the configuration controls, they cannot repeat that initial step because of the different context and the unavailable information (password lost, missing instructions, or simply a hard-to-manage user interface that was first configured by trial and error). Information Architect Jonas Söderström has named this concept Onceability, and defines it as "the quality in a technical system that prevents a user from restoring the system, once it has failed". Unused code Infrequently used portions of code, such as document filters or interfaces designed to be used by other programs, may contain bugs that go unnoticed. With changes in user requirements and other external factors, this code may be executed later, thereby exposing the bugs and making the software appear less functional. Rarely updated code Normal