RE: algorithmic normative conformance requirements, design principles, etc.

# This is the reality that spec writers and implementors have to deal with. No-one has the
# power to change this reality, and no amount of wishful thinking will change it either.

A successful specification of a language should take into account
the robustness principle, which is explicitly designed to accommodate the
reality of buggy implementations, evolution of languages, changing to
available platforms, implementation methods, discovery of new future
requirements, and so forth.

Specifying conservative authoring behavior at the same time encouraging
liberal reader behavior is the primary method by which standards writers
address those real concerns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_Principle

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3117


Larry
--
http://larry.masinter.net