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."