24 lines
3.6 KiB
HTML
24 lines
3.6 KiB
HTML
|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
|
|||
|
|
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>creeping featurism</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="creeping-elegance.html" title="creeping elegance"/><link rel="next" href="creeping-featuritis.html" title="creeping featuritis"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">creeping featurism</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="creeping-elegance.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="creeping-featuritis.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="creeping-featurism"/><dt xmlns="" id="creeping-featurism"><b>creeping featurism</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/kree<65>ping fee<65>chr<68>izm/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p>
|
|||
|
|
[common] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. Describes a systematic tendency to load more
|
|||
|
|
<a href="chrome.html"><i class="glossterm">chrome</i></a> and <a href="../F/feature.html"><i class="glossterm">feature</i></a>s onto
|
|||
|
|
systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when
|
|||
|
|
originally designed. See also <a href="../F/feeping-creaturism.html"><i class="glossterm">feeping creaturism</i></a>.
|
|||
|
|
“<span class="quote">You know, the main problem with <a href="../B/BSD.html"><i class="glossterm">BSD</i></a> Unix has
|
|||
|
|
always been creeping featurism.</span>” </p></dd><dd><p> 2. More generally, the tendency for anything complicated to become
|
|||
|
|
even more complicated because people keep saying “<span class="quote">Gee, it would be
|
|||
|
|
even better if it had this feature too</span>”. (See
|
|||
|
|
<a href="../F/feature.html"><i class="glossterm">feature</i></a>.) The result is usually a patchwork because
|
|||
|
|
it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is
|
|||
|
|
a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help
|
|||
|
|
someone ... and then another ... and another....
|
|||
|
|
When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. The GNU
|
|||
|
|
hello program, intended to illustrate <a href="../G/GNU.html"><i class="glossterm">GNU</i></a>
|
|||
|
|
command-line switch and coding conventions, is also a wonderful parody of
|
|||
|
|
creeping featurism; the distribution changelog is particularly funny.
|
|||
|
|
Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also
|
|||
|
|
be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A
|
|||
|
|
similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see
|
|||
|
|
<a href="../S/second-system-effect.html"><i class="glossterm">second-system effect</i></a>. See also
|
|||
|
|
<a href="creeping-elegance.html"><i class="glossterm">creeping elegance</i></a>. </p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="creeping-elegance.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="creeping-featuritis.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">creeping elegance<63></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>creeping featuritis</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|