Law of leaky abstractions
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Quoting one of his examples on TCP over IP: | Quoting one of his examples on TCP over IP: | ||
| − | ''TCP attempts to provide a complete abstraction [of providing | + | ''TCP attempts to provide a complete abstraction [of providing reliable data transmission] of an underlying unreliable network [IP], but sometimes, the network leaks through the abstraction and you feel the things that the abstraction can't quite protect you from.'' |
== References == | == References == | ||
| − | + | [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.html The Law of Leaky Abstraction] | |
Latest revision as of 07:37, 23 September 2009
All non-trivial abstractions, to some degree, are leaky. -- Joel Spolsky
In his article of "Law of Leaky Abstraction", Joel Spolsky claims that abstractions fail to a certain degree; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Thus, he coins the term "leakage".
Quoting one of his examples on TCP over IP:
TCP attempts to provide a complete abstraction [of providing reliable data transmission] of an underlying unreliable network [IP], but sometimes, the network leaks through the abstraction and you feel the things that the abstraction can't quite protect you from.
