Reading Programming

I have a huge issue with Feature Creep. I am working on my project but the todo list gets longer rather than shorter in the process.

I don't even think it's about the temptation to add cool sh*t all the time, but I often get that feeling that if I don't get $suboptimal_thing right here and now I'm going to pay for it later.

What do you do in order to fight feature creep?

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

I am not quite sure, if I understand, what you mean.
Do you feel the need of keeping your code extensible in each and every direction in order to be able to add any sort of feature?

-marc

Do you feel the need of keeping your code extensible in each and every direction in order to be able to add any sort of feature?

In some way, yes. I want my code to be as future-proof as possible. I don't want bad design to hunt me back later, and all too often you think of a better way to do something (closer to The Right Thing To Do) while during the implementation.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

Okay......I give up......what is a feature creep???

quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Okay......I give up......what is a feature creep???

A geeky definition can be viewed here. Essentially feature creep is the programmer's desire to make his projects bigger and better and rougher and tougher all the time, often resulting in bloated applications and missed deadlines.

It's a plague inherent to programming... coming to the point where you can't think of something that would be "nice to have", or could be implemented in a better way, is almost impossible.

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

Lol........I appreciate the reply.....I thought it might be a "gaming" term.

I was afraid it was going to be a programing term.

I understand the rough concept though.

I just wanted to go on record to show my appreciation of your patience and courtesy you have always shown to the afflicted.

Roughly I equate it to trying to put every extra neat gadget into a car...and running into battery deficit and wiring overload.

quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I often experience this problem at work... and I am required to bend to the requests of the users, so it can get VERY annoying. They ALWAYS have requests for changes when the application is done. I don't think there's any way of dealing with feature creep. The best programs are always growing and will never have a final version. They will evolve so to speak.

Solid requirements analysis is one way to help reduce feature creep (keyword: reduce), but I don't really think that could be applied to a project like netalive.org.

The best way to deal with it, I think, would be to prioritize the features... and I think you've got a pretty good handle on that.

This post was edited by mace on Feb 23, 2003.

Solid requirements analysis is one way to help reduce feature creep (keyword: reduce)

True, but often you see a better way to do something only while you're implementing, not when you're compiling your requirement documents.

Would prototyping help here? I never took that step, as it always seemed easier to clean a prototype hack than start from scratch.

(...)but I don't really think that could be applied to a project like netalive.org.
The best way to deal with it, I think, would be to prioritize the features... and I think you've got a pretty good handle on that.

Thanks, although I wasn't talking about this site :)

'Yeah, That's what Jesus would do. Jesus would bomb Afghanistan. Yeah.' - snowlion

I normally try from beginning on to do the heavily needed things ONLY, and after i produced some pretty well done and working code, i think of getting some steps further.

but only STEP BY STEP. i normally DONT create a to-do list; main features are stored in a plain ascii file normally called !struct.txt. To-Do list have it in common to evolve into big deep trouble, because you add and add and add, and finally you only think about adding any handy-dandy shit that MIGHT be POSSIBLY useful in a case of 1:100,000,000, so: NO USE of to-do lists ;)

if i'd like to add nice features that may come in handy later, i normally add some (short) comments above or below the part of code where i would later include this features. but by then it's only a '// comment', and mainly stays that a long time, till I a) either think I could had this feature now, or b) i dont need this feature and can get rid of this comment.

so much for Feature Creep :D
cu, w0lf.

Metal has no laws. Metal is the law.