• From: Michael Kay <mike@s...>
• To: Simon St.Laurent <simonstl@s...>
• Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2013 08:44:58 +0100

On 8 Apr 2013, at 06:59, Simon St.Laurent wrote:

> You certainly can lie on tax forms, and people do.  The validation of that data is less about the form and more about redundant collection of data from an ever-growing number of perhaps independent sources. 

Validation that tries to prevent people lying is certainly a waste of time (and sometimes it achieves the opposite effect, it can force people to lie, for example I've had to invent a US phone number on occasions).

But that's not what validation is for. Validation is to ensure that the message is readable by the recipient.

Over-zealous validation can certainly have the effect of requiring more data to be supplied than is actually needed. But that's not a fault of validation, it's a fault of over-zealousness.


Michael Kay
Saxonica

• References:
  • Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: "Timothy W. Cook" <timothywayne.cook@g...>
  • Re: Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: Liam R E Quin <liam@w...>
  • Re: Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@C...>
  • Re: Fwd: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: Not using mixed content? Then don't use XML
    • From: David Lee <dlee@c...>
  • costs of bureaucracy (was Re: Not using mixed content?Then don't use XML)
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>