[toast0]

I don't understand why you seem to agree with me but also said

> Logical ordering of events in a distributed system is a solved problem. The solution is vector clocks (or something like them).

A partial order solves the problem when messages are not simultaneous and so the partial order provides a total order. That there is in fact no total ordering of simultaneous messages doesn't solve the problem that users would like to have messages arrive in a consistent order without delay. This is unsolved, because it's unsolvable, therefore vector clocks aren't the solution.

[kiitos]

Vector clocks provide a deterministic partial order, but partial order doesn't provide any kind of total order. That's true, yes.

But (as I'm sure you're aware) there is no single deterministic total order of events in a distributed system. The system can assert some specific total order, based on some specific criteria -- say, LWW based on node identity -- but that's system-specific and arbitrary.

That "users would like to have messages arrive in a consistent order without delay" is a nice and valid expectation, but is literally impossible, in the general case. Vector clocks solve a lower-level problem; nothing can solve the higher-level problem.

(Again, as I'm sure you're aware.)