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