[pmelendez]

Ok.. I know the discussion is going way off-topic and getting pedantic connotations. To illustrate the point in my original comment, I would like to make a last cite from Britannica.

@dragonwriter: For some reason I can't reply your comments, I guess HN is delaying replies after a while precisely to avoid long off-topic threads (although they are fun :)

"contract, in the simplest definition, a promise enforceable by law" http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/135270/contract

[raldi]

And a promise, in the simplest definition, is not enforceable by law. That's why it's totally different from a contract.

[pmelendez]

The fact that one of the words is a subset of another depending on the context doesn't invalidate the fact that the words are still synonyms when they are used in a specific topic.

Moreover, by what you said before: > "Exchange" is the critical word. A single promise is extraordinarily different...

I would conclude that you are actually agreed on how I used it in my original comment:

> "and contracts might be dissolved if both sides of the contract agreed. This being an open promise is not a contract but a reaffirmation of a goal"

How that can be "100% wrong"?

[raldi]

The part that's wrong is the part I quoted.