"Documentation by paper"

[Jamie Lokier]

Joe Buck wrote:
> Robert, the Ada interface description is far from a spec, for any
> nontrivial function.  Almost any real spec will describe restrictions
> on input, and guarantees about the output, that are not written
> in a form that the compiler parses (even in languages like Eiffel with
> support for preconditions and postconditions).  This means that we
> are back to comments.

I would add that a real spec tells you what the function _does_ and
sometimes how to use it, in addition to pre/postconditions :)

-- Jamie