Unwinding the to do stack

[Roedy Green]

Have you ever noticed the way the tiniest Java project often grows
seemingly without bound.

You start to do something very simple. You need a tool to do that. You
notice the tool need to be tuned a bit to do the job properly. So you
set out to sharpen the tool. To do that you need to read some
documentation. In the process, you notice the documentation is
obsolete. So you set out to update the documentation... This chain
goes on and on. Eventually you can unwind your to-do stack.

I wonder if this feature of the universe has a name and if anyone has
ever written about it.

It manifests often in home improvement projects too.

--

Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
The Java Glossary
http://mindprod.com

[Real Gagnon]

Roedy Green <see_w...@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:r62v841uqg2ttbdv8...@4ax.com:

> Have you ever noticed the way the tiniest Java project often grows
> seemingly without bound.

I think software entropy is the term.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/software_entropy.htm

A good example is when you start an automated build system.

You start with a simple call to the compiler, then a ANT script, then
switch to Maven, add CruiseControl, Archiva, etc .

--
Real Gagnon from Quebec, Canada
* Java, Javascript, VBScript and PowerBuilder code snippets
* http://www.rgagnon.com/howto.html
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[Roedy Green]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:20:37 GMT, Roedy Green
<see_w...@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted
someone who said :

>
>I wonder if this feature of the universe has a name and if anyone has
>ever written about it.

Digging around in Google, I discovered the term yak shaving has 7
different meanings.

As is my custom, I have composed a small illustrated essay to
elucidate:

http://mindprod.com/jgloss/yakshaving.html