Notes on  BANANA PROBLEM 

[from the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell
`banana', but I don't know when to stop"]. Not knowing where or when
to bring a production to a close (compare FENCEPOST ERROR). One may
say there is a banana problem of an algorithm with poorly defined or
incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a
design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also
CREEPING ELEGANCE, CREEPING FEATURITIS). See item 176 under HAKMEM,
which describes a banana problem in a DISSOCIATED PRESS implementation.
Also, see ONE-BANANA PROBLEM for a superficially similar but
unrelated usage.

J3N Research Labs

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