critical mass
In physics, the minimum amount of fissionable material required to sustain a chain reaction. Of a software product, describes a condition of the software such that fixing one bug introduces one plus epsilon bugs. (This malady has many causes: creeping featurism, ports to too many disparate environments, poor initial design, etc.) When software achieves critical mass, it can never be fixed; it can only be discarded and rewritten. [Jargon File]Last updated: 1994-12-23
Nearby terms:
crisp ♦ Crispy Critters ♦ critical mass ♦ critical section ♦ CRL ♦ CRLF
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