I’m working on a Java library and would like to remove some functions from it. My reasons for this is public API and design cleanup. Some objects have setters, but should be immutable, some functionality has been implemented better/cleaner in different methods, etc.
I have marked these methods ‘deprecated’, and would like to remove them eventually. At the moment I’m thinking about removing these after few sprints (two week development cycles).
Are there any ‘best practices’ about removing redundant public code?
Set a date and publicize it in the @deprecated tag. The amount of time given to the removal depends on the amount of users your code has, how well connected you are with them and the the reason for the change.
If you have thousands of users and you barely talk to them, the time frame should probably be in the decades range 🙂
If your users are your 10 coworkers and you see them daily, the time frame can easily be in the weeks range.