CREEPING FEATURISM

Domain	Definition
Computing	Creeping featurism /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ n. [common] 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 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 GNU command-line switch and coding conventions, is also a wonderful parody of creeping featurism; the distribution changelog is particulary 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 second-system effect. See also creeping elegance. Source: Jargon File.
Health	A hookworm infection caused by an infestation of Ancyclostoma migrans larva, which penetrate the unprotected skin of humans, deposited in the soil. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: Creeping featurism

Creeping Featurism is a phrase used (usually within the sphere of computing and information technology) to describe the (often erroneous) idea that more features make a thing or product better than the previous version. The negative connotations of "Creeping Featurism" principally indicate the "enhancement" of a product with spurious features which have been added with little consideration for any putative benefit or, more customarily, disadvantages.

A related term, feature creep, describes the tendency for a software project's completion to be delayed by the temptation to keep adding new features, without a specific goal.

This phrase is sometimes rendered as the Spoonerism "feeping creaturism", which brings up the image of each new feature being a small creature which runs around going "feep, feep".

Ancestral Language Translations: CREEPING FEATURISM

Anagrams: CREEPING FEATURISM

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-e-f-g-i-i-m-n-p-r-r-s-t-u"
	-3 letters: prefigurements.
	-4 letters: ferrimagnetic, prefigurement, recentrifuges.
	-5 letters: epicureanism, ferrimagnets, generatrices, peregrinates, precertifies, premeasuring, recentrifuge, recriminates, recuperating.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: CREEPING FEATURISM

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

43 52 45 45 50 49 4E 47 46 45 41 54 55 52 49 53 4D

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000011 01010010 01000101 01000101 01010000 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000110 01000101 01000001 01010100 01010101 01010010 01001001 01010011 01001101

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#67 &#82 &#69 &#69 &#80 &#73 &#78 &#71 &#32 &#70 &#69 &#65 &#84 &#85 &#82 &#73 &#83 &#77

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0043 0052 0045 0045 0050 0049 004E 0047 0046 0045 0041 0054 0055 0052 0049 0053 004D

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	Agropyron repens, Cirsium arvense, Elytrigia repens, Lysimachia nummularia, Ranunculus repens, Triticum repens. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

CREEPING FEATURISM

Specialty Definition: CREEPING FEATURISM

Computing

Health

Specialty Definition: Creeping featurism

Crosswords: CREEPING FEATURISM