4 ms·
There was a great article at some point that explained why 'be liberal in what you accept' is a very bad engineering practice in certain circumstances, such as
by Confusion 10y ago
There was a great article at some point that explained why 'be liberal in what you accept' is a very bad engineering practice in certain circumstances, such as setting a standard, because it causes users to be confused and annoyed when a value accepted by system A is subsequently not accepted by supposedly compatible system B. Leading to pointless discussions about what the spec 'intended' and subtle incompatibility. Anyone know what article I mean?
- webmaven 10y agoPerhaps "The Harmful Consequences of Postel's Maxim"?: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9824638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9824638 If not, perhaps one of these: http://programmingisterrible.com/post/42215715657/postels-principle-is-a-bad-idea http://programmingisterrible.com/post/42215715657/postels-pr... https://bitworking.org/news/There_are_no_exceptions_to_Postel_s_Law_ https://bitworking.org/news/There_are_no_exceptions_to_Poste... http://trevorjim.com/postels-law-is-not-for-you/ http://trevorjim.com/postels-law-is-not-for-you/
- Confusion 10y agoYes, thank you, it was the one by 'programmingisterrible' and the linked paper by Patterson, Sassaman, and Bratus.
- inimino 10y agoI've seen this argument most frequently made with regards to XML.
- collyw 10y agoThats pretty much my experience when building software as well. A lot of the time I have been liberal to incorporate legacy data, and every time in has ended up being the cause of the majority of bugs in the systems I have built.