Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A concise summary of the robustness principle for network communication.
- In plain terms
- Accept broadly but transmit narrowly.
- What can you take from it?
- Ensure systems work together even if standards vary.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does tolerance become negligence?
- How do you enforce standards?
Another view
Lenient parsing might hide errors in data transmission.
More from Jon Postel
I think they called me the closest thing to a God of the Internet. But at the end, that article wasn't very complimentary, because the author suggested that I …
Permalink to quote #4 He worked quietly for years as keeper of the RFCs and final arbiter in technical matters when consensus couldn't be reached. Postel believed that decisions he …
Permalink to quote #6 TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.
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