from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
second-system effect
n.
(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....
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
second-system effect
(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}. 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}.
[{Jargon File}]