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"At least" means more than or equal to. In other words, the 'least' it can be is 100 characters, with no upper bound.

tgb 5y ago
Yes but "you must support up to 100 characters" also has no upper bound - supporting 200 characters also fits that requirement.
- mypalmike 5y ago
  So if you were a programmer on a project and you were given a spec that says "up to 100", you would just make it unbounded, and for all intents and purposes completely ignore the spec?
  - devmor 5y ago
    "Must" and "Must Not" are keywords in formal spec. If it says "Must support up to 100" and doesn't say "Must Not support over 100" then I would consider the upper limit to be whatever limit is sane for the data type.
    - mypalmike 5y ago
      So you would pick an arbitrary upper limit based on your own notion of what is sane. Picking such a limit, you would still need to write the same error handling code for limits, but it would happen at maybe 200. And the next programmer who inherits your code looks at the spec and your code and has to guess "why 200"? And it becomes lore. Which is specifically worse than writing to the spec.
      - devmor 5y ago
        The spec doesn't exist. It's undefined. "Must support up to 100" is not a limit, it's a lower bound.
- bluefirebrand 5y ago
  I can see where you're coming from, it does read like "MUST support up to 100 characters (and MAY support more of you choose). But honestly I think it's a bad practice to build the "may" part, because it's not explicit. The person who wrote the spec just as easily could have intended it to be "MUST support up to 100 (and may not go over 100)". So by not setting a bound you're gambling with your implementation being rejected, but setting a bound at 100 satisfies both possible "implied clauses" of the requirement and should not be rejected.
paulddraper 5y ago
Both sentences require browsers to support 100 characters. Both sentences permit browsers to support 101 characters.
- TchoBeer 5y ago
  Exactly, they're functionally the same.
  - bulletsvshumans 5y ago
    On second pass, you're right. They're the same.
bigyikes 5y ago
The supported URL length is at least 100 characters, not the URL length.

tgb 5y ago

Yes but "you must support up to 100 characters" also has no upper bound - supporting 200 characters also fits that requirement.

mypalmike 5y ago
So if you were a programmer on a project and you were given a spec that says "up to 100", you would just make it unbounded, and for all intents and purposes completely ignore the spec?
- devmor 5y ago
  "Must" and "Must Not" are keywords in formal spec. If it says "Must support up to 100" and doesn't say "Must Not support over 100" then I would consider the upper limit to be whatever limit is sane for the data type.
  - mypalmike 5y ago
    So you would pick an arbitrary upper limit based on your own notion of what is sane. Picking such a limit, you would still need to write the same error handling code for limits, but it would happen at maybe 200. And the next programmer who inherits your code looks at the spec and your code and has to guess "why 200"? And it becomes lore. Which is specifically worse than writing to the spec.
    - devmor 5y ago
      The spec doesn't exist. It's undefined. "Must support up to 100" is not a limit, it's a lower bound.
bluefirebrand 5y ago
I can see where you're coming from, it does read like "MUST support up to 100 characters (and MAY support more of you choose). But honestly I think it's a bad practice to build the "may" part, because it's not explicit. The person who wrote the spec just as easily could have intended it to be "MUST support up to 100 (and may not go over 100)". So by not setting a bound you're gambling with your implementation being rejected, but setting a bound at 100 satisfies both possible "implied clauses" of the requirement and should not be rejected.

paulddraper 5y ago

Both sentences require browsers to support 100 characters. Both sentences permit browsers to support 101 characters.

TchoBeer 5y ago
Exactly, they're functionally the same.
- bulletsvshumans 5y ago
  On second pass, you're right. They're the same.

bigyikes 5y ago

The supported URL length is at least 100 characters, not the URL length.