Self-Describing Structures / Size Overhead

Kind: tension

Record: tension:self-describing-structures-size-overhead

Canonical: Schema

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

Listed in Tensions, after Self-Describing API / Payload Verbosity and before Metadata-Driven Design / Debuggability.

In tension with

• Self-Describing Structures
• Size Overhead

Mechanism

• irreducible-tradeoff

Linked from

• Metadata / Self-Description / Declarative Systems
• Resolution mechanisms