<story><title>Finish your stuff</title><url>http://250bpm.com/blog:50</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>projectramo</author><text>What would that look like?&lt;p&gt;Consider an example:&lt;p&gt;You have made a little web app that beeps at certain times of the day to remind me to do something.&lt;p&gt;Is it complete?&lt;p&gt;Oh, you want a calendar integration. That makes sense. You add it. Is it complete?&lt;p&gt;Oh, you say you want to release mobile versions? Okay, now is it complete?&lt;p&gt;Sorry, but the iOS version needs to be updated to remain compatible. Now is it complete?&lt;p&gt;There is a new popular cal app that everyone uses. Should you update it to work with that?&lt;p&gt;The problem isn&amp;#x27;t that the software is incomplete. The &amp;quot;problem&amp;quot; is that the world keeps changing.&lt;p&gt;To the extent that the environment doesn&amp;#x27;t change (unix), you can &amp;quot;complete&amp;quot; your tool.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zachrose</author><text>I think the Unix philosophy would have you pipe those beeps to another program that does your calendar integration.</text></comment>
<story><title>Finish your stuff</title><url>http://250bpm.com/blog:50</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>projectramo</author><text>What would that look like?&lt;p&gt;Consider an example:&lt;p&gt;You have made a little web app that beeps at certain times of the day to remind me to do something.&lt;p&gt;Is it complete?&lt;p&gt;Oh, you want a calendar integration. That makes sense. You add it. Is it complete?&lt;p&gt;Oh, you say you want to release mobile versions? Okay, now is it complete?&lt;p&gt;Sorry, but the iOS version needs to be updated to remain compatible. Now is it complete?&lt;p&gt;There is a new popular cal app that everyone uses. Should you update it to work with that?&lt;p&gt;The problem isn&amp;#x27;t that the software is incomplete. The &amp;quot;problem&amp;quot; is that the world keeps changing.&lt;p&gt;To the extent that the environment doesn&amp;#x27;t change (unix), you can &amp;quot;complete&amp;quot; your tool.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zokier</author><text>That is called feature creep, and is usually not viewed in positive light. Its real art to know how to decompose problems and design neat, contained, solutions.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d also argue that the &amp;quot;change&amp;quot; you are seeing is mostly illusionary, but that is another story altogether.</text></comment>