Split Capabilities: Making Capabilities Scale

[Mark S. Miller]

At 07:31 PM 8/15/00 , Bill Frantz wrote:
>The best contracts are explicit about what the client can't count on.  For
>example, even if the directory lists always come out in sort order, if the
>designer wishes the flexibility to change that order, the contract should
>be written to specify that the order is not guaranteed.  Having to get that
>information implicitly leads to getting the information by experiment with
>an actual instance of a server implementing the contract.

I agree.  

Given the original subject, it bears pointing out that being explicit as you 
suggest does not imply being explicit about either what other facets exist, 
or what internal state transitions are possible.  I'd say Ralph's message is 
a wonderful example of being explicit in the way you suggest without 
including either of these other kinds of information.


         Cheers,
         --MarkM