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38 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
volume 0, Kelvin Versioning.
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===========================
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<h3 id="++hoon"><code>++hoon</code></h3>
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++ hoon %164 :: version stub
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Declares the current Hoon version number in degrees Kelvin.
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When normal people release normal software, they count by fractions, and
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they count up. Thus, they can keep extending and revising their systems
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incrementally. This is generally considered a good thing. It generally
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is.
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In some cases, however, specifications needs to be permanently frozen.
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This requirement is generally found in the context of standards. Some
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standards are extensible or versionable, but some are not. ASCII, for
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instance, is perma-frozen. So is IPv4 (its relationship to IPv6 is
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little more than nominal - if they were really the same protocol, they'd
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have the same ethertype). Moreover, many standards render themselves
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incompatible in practice through excessive enthusiasm for extensibility.
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They may not be perma-frozen, but they probably should be.
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The true, Martian way to perma-freeze a system is what I call Kelvin
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versioning. In Kelvin versioning, releases count down by integer degrees
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Kelvin. At absolute zero, the system can no longer be changed. At 1K,
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one more modification is possible. And so on. For instance, Nock is at
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5K. It might change, though it probably won't. Nouns themselves are at
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0K - it is impossible to imagine changing anything about their three
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sentence definition.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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~zod/try=> stub
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164
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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