There are two kinds of engineers: those that accept the reality and necessity of the robustness principle and those that try to deny it. > The robustness principle is a design guideline for software that states: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others". - ThreadSky

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felipe.rs • 9 days ago

There are two kinds of engineers: those that accept the reality and necessity of the robustness principle and those that try to deny it.

> The robustness principle is a design guideline for software that states: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others".

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pitrou.bsky.social•8 days ago

That's what the designers of Web browsers did in the 1990s, and that led to a horrible mess of incompatibilities until many actors (including the W3C) pushed for much more strictness.

There are situations where it pays to be prescriptive, especially if you're concerned about the long term.

felipe.rs•8 days ago

We can design a web that doesn't need the robustness principle, but the only web that can exist in practice is one that applies it everywhere.

felipe.rs•9 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle

julianhyde.bsky.social•9 days ago

I guess I'm the other kind. I strive to find situations where the robustness principle doesn't degrade my system to meaningless mush.

felipe.rs•8 days ago

Systems should be designed to not need the Robustness principle as much. But there’s a limit.

julianhyde.bsky.social•7 days ago

I agree. Robustness is necessary but is no free lunch. And I especially hate to be the one handing out the lunch to whiners.

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