(sometimes, more euphoniously, second-system syndrome) When one is
designing the successor to a relatively small, elegant, and
successful system, there is a tendency to become grandiose in one's
success and design an {elephantine} feature-laden monstrosity. The
term was first used by Fred Brooks in his classic The Mythical
Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (Addison-Wesley, 1975; ISBN
0-201-00650-2). It described the jump from a set of nice, simple
operating systems on the IBM 70xx series to OS/360 on the 360 series.
A similar effect can also happen in an evolving system; see {Brooks's
Law}, {creeping elegance}, {creeping featurism}. See also {Multics},
{OS/2}, {X}, {software bloat}.
This version of the jargon lexicon has been described (with
altogether too much truth for comfort) as an example of second-system
effect run amok on jargon-1....
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {Brooks's Law}{C++}{creeping elegance}{creeping featurism}{elephantine}{Multics}{OS/2}{software bloat}{sun-stools}]