Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

C Programmer's Disease
     
         The tendency of the undisciplined {C} programmer
        to set arbitrary but supposedly generous static limits on
        table sizes (defined, if you're lucky, by constants in header
        files) rather than taking the trouble to do proper dynamic
        storage allocation.  If an application user later needs to put
        68 elements into a table of size 50, the afflicted programmer
        reasons that he or she can easily reset the table size to 68
        (or even as much as 70, to allow for future expansion) and
        recompile.  This gives the programmer the comfortable feeling
        of having made the effort to satisfy the user's (unreasonable)
        demands, and often affords the user multiple opportunities to
        explore the marvellous consequences of {fandango on core}.  In
        severe cases of the disease, the programmer cannot comprehend
        why each fix of this kind seems only to further disgruntle the
        user.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (2001-12-31)