Path: csiph.com!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> Newsgroups: comp.programming Subject: Re: To hell with the program spec - I know what's best Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2016 03:57:51 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 34 Message-ID: <20160726205628.362@kylheku.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: OGJi3KNpFOhM58UHZwXj0w.user.gioia.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: slrn/pre1.0.0-18 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.programming:6836 On 2016-07-27, J. Clarke wrote: > In article , ram@zedat.fu- > berlin.de says... >> >> Richard Heathfield writes: >> >The trouble with not sticking to the spec is that you don't meet the >> >clients' expectations, and it's the client that pays the bills. If you >> >don't do what is asked, the client may well be in a position to refuse >> >to pay for the work. The same applies to anything you did do that was >> >/not/ asked for. >> >> Or worse, when you are taking an exam, and the requirement is >> to write a program that prints »hello, world«, and you turn in >> a program that prints »C programming«, you might get worse grades! >> >> What grade should a student deserve when the requirement is to >> write a program that prints »hello, world«, and his program >> prints »Hello world!«? > > What grade would one get if in addition to the program that prints > "hello, world", the student provided an installation program, an > uninstallation program, and a set of bound documentation clearly > describing the use of both the "hello, world" program and the > installer/uninstaller? > > That's the kind of "deviation from spec" that we're talking about, > however Heathfield doesn't seem to understand the difference between > that and providing a broken program. That's not deviation from the spec, unless the spec expressly forbids other non-conflicting requirements from being thrown in and implement. I think Richard understands that, say, an ISO C implementation can come with a lovely IDE and leather-bound manual, and be conforming.