Continuous obsolescence
Encyclopedia
Continuous obsolescence or perpetual revolution is a phenomenon where industry trends, or other items that do not immediately correspond to technical needs, mandate a continual readaptation of a system; such work does not increase the usefulness of the system, but is required for the system to continue fulfilling its functions.
Continuous obsolescence may be unintentional. One type of largely unintentional case of continuous obsolescence occurs when the rising demand for graphics- and experience-intensive videogames collides with a long development time for a new title; while a game may have been acceptable or even revolutionary if released on schedule, a delay exposes it to the risk of being unable to compete with better games released during the delay (e.g. Daikatana
), or even being continually rewritten to take advantage of better technologies as they become available (e.g. Duke Nukem Forever
). This last behavior is an example of a software development anti-pattern
.
Continuous obsolescence may also be intentional, for example when an application tries to include compatibility for the output of another widely-used application. In this case, the software house responsible for the latter may vary its output format repeatedly, forcing the developer of the former to continuously expend resources to keep its compatibility up-to-date, rather than using those resources to expand features or otherwise make the product more competitive. (Many accuse Microsoft
of doing exactly this with the file formats used by its Office
application suite.)
Continuous obsolescence may get its name from the Extreme Programming
concept of "continuous integration".
Continuous obsolescence may be unintentional. One type of largely unintentional case of continuous obsolescence occurs when the rising demand for graphics- and experience-intensive videogames collides with a long development time for a new title; while a game may have been acceptable or even revolutionary if released on schedule, a delay exposes it to the risk of being unable to compete with better games released during the delay (e.g. Daikatana
Daikatana
John Romero's Daikatana, or simply Daikatana, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on May 23, 2000 for Windows, it was led by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry....
), or even being continually rewritten to take advantage of better technologies as they become available (e.g. Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever is a 2011 first-person shooter video game for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 developed by 3D Realms and Triptych Games and finished by Gearbox Software and Piranha Games...
). This last behavior is an example of a software development anti-pattern
Anti-pattern
In software engineering, an anti-pattern is a pattern that may be commonly used but is ineffective and/or counterproductive in practice.The term was coined in 1995 by Andrew Koenig,...
.
Continuous obsolescence may also be intentional, for example when an application tries to include compatibility for the output of another widely-used application. In this case, the software house responsible for the latter may vary its output format repeatedly, forcing the developer of the former to continuously expend resources to keep its compatibility up-to-date, rather than using those resources to expand features or otherwise make the product more competitive. (Many accuse Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
of doing exactly this with the file formats used by its Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
application suite.)
Continuous obsolescence may get its name from the Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming
Extreme programming is a software development methodology which is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements...
concept of "continuous integration".