From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261339AbULBD6n (ORCPT ); Wed, 1 Dec 2004 22:58:43 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261354AbULBD6n (ORCPT ); Wed, 1 Dec 2004 22:58:43 -0500 Received: from fw.osdl.org ([65.172.181.6]:49540 "EHLO mail.osdl.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261339AbULBD6k (ORCPT ); Wed, 1 Dec 2004 22:58:40 -0500 Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 19:58:17 -0800 (PST) From: Linus Torvalds To: Alexandre Oliva cc: Paul Mackerras , Greg KH , David Woodhouse , Matthew Wilcox , David Howells , hch@infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, libc-hacker@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: [RFC] Splitting kernel headers and deprecating __KERNEL__ In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <19865.1101395592@redhat.com> <20041125165433.GA2849@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> <1101406661.8191.9390.camel@hades.cambridge.redhat.com> <20041127032403.GB10536@kroah.com> <16810.24893.747522.656073@cargo.ozlabs.ibm.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, 1 Dec 2004, Alexandre Oliva wrote: > > > Then your definition of a "contract" is flawed or your world-view has > > nothing to do with reality. > > It's not my definition, it's a definition used in software > engineering. Not that I've seen. Maybe your school. Google also doesn't seem to agree with you. In other words, it seems to be in pretty limited use. > An ABI is a definition of an interface, including operations with pre- > and post-conditions, data structures with their invariants, constants, > file formats, etc. Oh, I know what an ABI is. I just don't think your "contract" part has anything to do with it. > Most of that is covered by the software engineering term `contract'. I think you're making that up. Maybe there's some sw cult that swears by "contract programming", the same way there are the "extreme programming" cults etc. For example, I find this "Design by Contract" cult for object- oriented programming, but it has _zero_ to do with external API's, and is all about the interfaces for object-oriented components. IOW, I don't find your arguments or your language usage in the least convincing. But hey, I did all my CS stuff outside of the US, whatever. Linus