Coding by Exception
A programming practice of handling each new edge case by adding special-case code rather than rethinking the underlying design. Quick to write, painful to maintain.
Origin
Coding by exception emerged as a recognized anti-pattern during the 1990s, as the software industry began cataloging recurring design mistakes alongside best practices. The broader concept of anti-patterns was introduced by Andrew Koenig in a 1995 article for the Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, inspired by the influential 1994 book Design Patterns. The 1998 book AntiPatterns by William Brown, Raphael Malveau, and colleagues further systematized such practices, cataloging dozens of counterproductive coding and management habits — of which coding by exception is a classic example.