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Re: It is okay for things to break in the future!

• From: Damian Morris <damian@moso.com.au>
• To: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>
• Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2022 21:55:45 +0000

I think what you’re suggesting is that it’s generally possible to know the world, and developers can and should do this, because the benefits of trying to model the world in ways that break your model when the world doesn’t agree are actually a good thing.

We’re suggesting that it’s even less possible to model the world - even in incredibly simple ways - than most people realise, and the costs of breaking your model when the world inevitably doesn’t agree with your model far outweigh the relatively minor benefits that the (broken) validation brings.

Cheers,

Damian


> On 5 Sep 2022, at 7:30 am, Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> wrote:
> 
> Michael Kay wrote:
> 
>> So you're seriously suggesting that just because no employee
>> has ever earned a bonus of more than $1m, or has had a
>> surname longer than 20 characters, your schema should
>> impose these as upper limits?
> 
> Absolutely.
> 
> If the current worldview is that, then those should be the limits.
> 
> In my opinion, the "Golden Rule of Validation" is this:
> 
> 	Do not treat invalid data
> 	as valid.
> 
> /Roger

• References:
  • Re: It is okay for things to break in the future!
    • From: "C. M. Sperberg-McQueen" <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com>
  • Re: It is okay for things to break in the future!
    • From: "Liam R. E. Quin" <liam@fromoldbooks.org>
  • Re: It is okay for things to break in the future!
    • From: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>
  • Re: It is okay for things to break in the future!
    • From: Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>