Zero One Infinity

Zero One Infinity

The Zero One or Infinity (ZOI) rule is a rule of thumb in software design. It suggests that arbitrary limits on the number of instances of a particular entity should not be allowed. Specifically, that an entity should either be forbidden entirely, one should be allowed, or any number (presumably, to the limit of available storage) of them should be allowed. It should not be the software that puts a hard limit on the number of instances of the entity.

The rationale behind the rule is this. It makes sense to be able to forbid something. And it makes sense to restrict something to uniqueness; the entity in question may have a specific role to play, such that multiple instances would obviously make no sense. However, once the entity is available in numbers greater than one, it usually becomes difficult to justify limiting the number of entities to a particular arbitrary value N. That is, given a particular limit N such that N>1, it is difficult to argue that having a limit of N is any better than N+1. As such, the limit may as well be N+1.

References

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/Z/Zero-One-Infinity-Rule.html


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Zero One Infinity — bezeichnet sprichwörtlich eine Regel beim Programmieren von Computerprogrammen. Der englische Wortlaut der Zero One Infinity Regel ist: „Allow none of foo, one of foo, or any number of foo.“ Übersetzt bedeutet dies etwa: „Ermögliche eine Sache… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • zero one infinity rule — noun The rule that a database (or similar) should allow for either zero, one, or an indefinite number of an entity …   Wiktionary

  • Zero-point energy — is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may have; it is the energy of its ground state. All quantum mechanical systems undergo fluctuations even in their ground state and have an associated zero point energy, a… …   Wikipedia

  • Infinity — • The infinite, as the word indicates, is that which has no end, no limit, no boundary, and therefore cannot be measured by a finite standard, however often applied; it is that which cannot be attained by successive addition, not exhausted by… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Infinity Eighteen Vol.2 — Album par Ami Suzuki Sortie 26 avril 2000 Enregistrement 2000 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Infinity — In mathematics, infinity is often used in contexts where it is treated as if it were a number (i.e., it counts or measures things: an infinite number of terms ) but it is a different type of number from the real numbers. Infinity is related to… …   Wikipedia

  • Infinity edge pool — An infinity edge pool (also named negative edge, zero edge, disappearing edge or vanishing edge pool) is a swimming or reflecting pool which produces a visual effect of water extending to the horizon, vanishing, or extending to infinity . The… …   Wikipedia

  • One World Trade Center — Freedom Tower redirects here. For other uses, see Freedom Tower (disambiguation). For the building complex destroyed in the September 11 attacks, see World Trade Center. For the specific WTC building formerly known as One World Trade Center, see… …   Wikipedia

  • Infinity pool — An infinity edge pool (also named negative edge, zero edge, disappearing edge, or vanishing edge pool) is a swimming pool which produces a visual effect of water extending to the horizon, vanishing, or extending to infinity . These style pools… …   Wikipedia

  • Division by zero — This article is about the mathematical concept. For other uses, see Division by zero (disambiguation). The function y = 1/x. As x approaches 0 from the right, y approaches infinity. As x approaches 0 from the left, y approaches negative …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”