Invariant / Flexibility

Kind: tension

Record: tension:flexibility-invariant

Canonical: Schema

"invariant" (contracts-core layer) is traded against "Flexibility" (contracts-core layer) — a principle cannot be scope-separated from a quality, metric, or cost it competes with; resolve by measuring "Flexibility" and choosing an explicit operating point.

Listed in Tensions, after Postconditions / Runtime Cost and before Backward Compatibility / Cleanup / Simplification.

In tension with

• Invariant
• Flexibility

Mechanism

• irreducible-tradeoff

Linked from

• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility
• Resolution mechanisms