What does "deprecated" mean? [closed]

Question

I am beginner for android and i am studying some tutorials on the internet.

I was studying "tabactivity" but on android site tells me it is deprecated.

What this means? It is not for use it anymore?

Sorry for bad english thanks

About

I think this could be a legit, unclosed question if its content was edited... asking what "deprecated" means with respect to the Android framework isn't a localized question IMO :) – Prolegomenon

Answer 1

Deprecated means "You can still use this, but don't count on it, because we will probably replace it with something else (or remove it entirely) in future software releases."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deprecation

Tinny

IDK about this definition... you can "count on" deprecated methods as in they are still supported by Android (so as not to break existing apps). When you see "deprecated" in the docs it usually means there is a better option that the Android team suggests you use instead. – Prolegomenon

As you wish. But then, why bother deprecating it if you don't intend to remove it in some later release? Generally speaking, the pattern is to go through two major releases; one to mark the methods as deprecated and give the developers time to rewrite their software, and another to actually remove them. – Tinny

Hmm... I guess you are correct about the general definition. But I don't think Android has ever stopped completely supporting something... for example Android continues to support AbsoluteLayout (deprecated in Android 1.5) to this day even though there is no reason why you should ever need to use it (ever), all just because they don't want to break Android 1.0 and 1.1 apps. I guess Android is just more strict in dropping support for certain features compared to other application frameworks. – Prolegomenon