creeping featurism
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 | This is the JargonFile (V4.00) entry for creeping featurism - Next: creeping featuritis, Prev: creeping elegance |
| :creeping featurism: /kreeping feechr-izm/ /n./ 1. Describes a systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. See also feeping creaturism. "You know, the main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." 2. More generally, the tendency for anything complicated to become even more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". (See feature.) 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 its easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone ... and then another ... and another.... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, its like a cancer. 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 second-system effect. See also creeping elegance. | |
| * (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996 - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain) | |
sometimes also called "creeping featuritis"
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein
