[cogwheel]

This is beside the point. The code specifies what the product _is_, not what it "should" be. If you ask for a word processor and I deliver a perfectly bug-free and feature-complete calculator would you really believe it lived up to spec?

[_gabe_]

This is also beside the point. I think both of you are trying to warn against the dangers that lie on both sides of this coin: people can invest too heavily in a specification and waste an enormous amount of time, and people can immediately jump into coding and code something that does not do what it was intended to do. Like with all things in life, there’s a balance between these two extremes that’s correct.

You need some level of specification so you know what you’re building, but you have to keep in mind that the final code defines what the behavior truly is. Sometimes, that behavior unintentionally becomes part of the specification because users begin to rely on it.

I do like the fact that you both used hyperbole to succinctly illustrate the dangers of veering too far in either direction though :)

[stickfigure]

A (human language) specification is simply _enough_ information about a system that a human can figure out the intention of the author. The smarter and more context-rich the human, the simpler the specification can be. The dumber and less context-rich the human, the closer the specification needs to be to code.

It's asymptotic. By the time you reach a human who is as dumb as an actual computer, the specification _is_ the code.