mirror of
https://github.com/ilyakooo0/urbit.git
synced 2024-12-19 12:51:51 +03:00
38 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
volume 0, Kelvin Versioning.
|
|
===========================
|
|
|
|
### `++hoon`
|
|
|
|
++ hoon %164 :: version stub
|
|
|
|
Declares the current Hoon version number in degrees Kelvin.
|
|
|
|
When normal people release normal software, they count by fractions, and
|
|
they count up. Thus, they can keep extending and revising their systems
|
|
incrementally. This is generally considered a good thing. It generally
|
|
is.
|
|
|
|
In some cases, however, specifications needs to be permanently frozen.
|
|
This requirement is generally found in the context of standards. Some
|
|
standards are extensible or versionable, but some are not. ASCII, for
|
|
instance, is perma-frozen. So is IPv4 (its relationship to IPv6 is
|
|
little more than nominal - if they were really the same protocol, they'd
|
|
have the same ethertype). Moreover, many standards render themselves
|
|
incompatible in practice through excessive enthusiasm for extensibility.
|
|
They may not be perma-frozen, but they probably should be.
|
|
|
|
The true, Martian way to perma-freeze a system is what I call Kelvin
|
|
versioning. In Kelvin versioning, releases count down by integer degrees
|
|
Kelvin. At absolute zero, the system can no longer be changed. At 1K,
|
|
one more modification is possible. And so on. For instance, Nock is at
|
|
5K. It might change, though it probably won't. Nouns themselves are at
|
|
0K - it is impossible to imagine changing anything about their three
|
|
sentence definition.
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
~zod/try=> stub
|
|
164
|
|
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|