Postel’s Law, also known as the Robustness Principle: > be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others It’s intended as a way to ma

Postel’s Law, also known as the Robustness Principle: > be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others It’s intended as a way to maximise compatibility, and people have generally followed it when designing protocols and file formats. However it’s led to many security vulnerabilities and has caused a lot of compatibility problems itself. These days a lot of people are realising that it’s more harmful than helpful.