Second-system effect
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The second-system effect (also known as second-system syndrome) is the tendency of small, elegant, and successful systems to have elephantine, feature-laden monstrosities as their successors due to inflated expectations.[1]
The phrase was first used by Fred Brooks in his classic The Mythical Man-Month.[2] It described the jump from a set of simple operating systems on the IBM 700/7000 series to OS/360 on the 360 series.
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See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Raymond, Eric. "Second-system effect". The Jargon File. Retrieved 24 Jun 2013.
- ^ Brooks, Jr., Frederick P. (December 2006) [1975]. "The Second-System Effect". The Mythical Man-Month: essays on software engineering (Anniversary ed. ed.). Addison Wesley Longman. p. 53. ISBN 0-201-83595-9.
References[edit]
This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.
External links[edit]
- “Things You Should Never Do”, by Joel Spolsky, about the Netscape project
- Rewriting Software, in Notes on Haskell
- Rewrites Considered Harmful? by Neil Gunton
- The Big Rewrite by Chad Fowler
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