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misfeature

misfeature


  3  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Misfeature  \Mis*fea"ture\,  n. 
  Ill  feature.  [R.]  --Keats. 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  misfeature  /mis-fee'chr/  or  /mis'fee`chr/  n.  [common]  A 
  feature  that  eventually  causes  lossage,  possibly  because  it  is  not 
  adequate  for  a  new  situation  that  has  evolved.  Since  it  results  from  a 
  deliberate  and  properly  implemented  feature,  a  misfeature  is  not  a  bug. 
  Nor  is  it  a  simple  unforeseen  side  effect;  the  term  implies  that  the 
  feature  in  question  was  carefully  planned,  but  its  long-term  consequences 
  were  not  accurately  or  adequately  predicted  (which  is  quite  different  from 
  not  having  thought  ahead  at  all).  A  misfeature  can  be  a  particularly 
  stubborn  problem  to  resolve,  because  fixing  it  usually  involves  a 
  substantial  philosophical  change  to  the  structure  of  the  system  involved. 
 
  Many  misfeatures  (especially  in  user-interface  design)  arise 
  because  the  designers/implementors  mistake  their  personal  tastes  for 
  laws  of  nature.  Often  a  former  feature  becomes  a  misfeature  because 
  trade-offs  were  made  whose  parameters  subsequently  change  (possibly 
  only  in  the  judgment  of  the  implementors).  "Well,  yeah,  it  is  kind  of 
  a  misfeature  that  file  names  are  limited  to  six  characters,  but  the 
  original  implementors  wanted  to  save  directory  space  and  we're  stuck 
  with  it  for  now." 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  misfeature 
 
  /mis-fee'chr/  or  /mis'fee"chr/  A  feature  that  eventually 
  causes  lossage,  possibly  because  it  is  not  adequate  for  a  new 
  situation  that  has  evolved.  Since  it  results  from  a 
  deliberate  and  properly  implemented  feature,  a  misfeature  is 
  not  a  bug.  Nor  is  it  a  simple  unforeseen  side  effect;  the 
  term  implies  that  the  feature  in  question  was  carefully 
  planned,  but  its  long-term  consequences  were  not  accurately  or 
  adequately  predicted  (which  is  quite  different  from  not  having 
  thought  ahead  at  all).  A  misfeature  can  be  a  particularly 
  stubborn  problem  to  resolve,  because  fixing  it  usually 
  involves  a  substantial  philosophical  change  to  the  structure 
  of  the  system  involved. 
 
  Many  misfeatures  (especially  in  user-interface  design)  arise 
  because  the  designers/implementors  mistake  their  personal 
  tastes  for  laws  of  nature.  Often  a  former  feature  becomes  a 
  misfeature  because  trade-offs  were  made  whose  parameters 
  subsequently  change  (possibly  only  in  the  judgment  of  the 
  implementors).  "Well,  yeah,  it  is  kind  of  a  misfeature  that 
  file  names  are  limited  to  six  characters,  but  the  original 
  implementors  wanted  to  save  directory  space  and  we"re  stuck 
  with  it  for  now."