you are looking for a programming analogy - if there is a

As I mentioned, there are many analogies between programming and legal work.

I am working on an upcoming post to explain a specific application of a legal concept. Unfortunately, I think this is one of these a few concepts is not a ready programming analogy. I would love someone to prove me the contrary, since the programming side of my brain will slowly pot. This is:

In law, there is the notion of "rules" and "standards". Fundamentally, the rules are clear - they allow a judge to simply look at the facts, apply the rule and voila - you know if the rule has been violated. An example would be "the speed limit is 55". If you are in a car 56, you are in violation - even if, say, you are accelerating to the hospital with your pregnant wife. Alternatively, if you are in a car 54 you fine - even if it is casting of rain. The rules are good because they are easy for the public to understand (no need to consult a lawyer) and because their application (should be) very good, but impartial, fair rules are very difficult (in many cases of essentially impossible) to write.

A standard, on the other hand, is more vague - something like "the speed limit is whatever speed is safe to circumstances." Could you not allow to go 56 at the hospital, but would certainly not 54 in the rain. They are poor in some respects because they are more delicate, case by case, difficult to predict the outcome in advance and involves the judgment on the part of all parties, but (probably) produced better results much of assuming time - that you can trust the parties using the try, and you can put in with the cost of taking the time to make a decision.

So… for those of you that have lasted this long: are there analogies for this software? I can find the thing closest I think is a typing strong vs weak typing, but are in General, because computers are unable to deal with the standards, not many examples. I lack/forgotten something?

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 09: 43 and is filed under forfacebook, gnome, right, licenses, personal, BGP. You can follow your comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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