Uneditability¶
public enum Uneditability
An enumeration of reasons why the code to which the DoNotEditAttribute is applied should not be edited.
The terms used in this enumeration are derived, in several cases, from the Jargon File (http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/), 4.4.8.
The values of the enumeration are as follows:
- DeepMagic
- “An awesomely arcane technique central to a program or system, esp. one neither generally published nor available to hackers at large (compare black art); one that could only have been composed by a true wizard. Compiler optimization techniques and many aspects of OS design used to be deep magic; many techniques in cryptography, signal processing, graphics, and AI still are.”
- DeeperMagic
- Like deep magic, but more so. Treat even more carefully than instances of deep magic in the same code.
- BlackMagic
- “A technique that works, though nobody really understands why.” Mostly ad-hoc. Since we don’t know how it works, if it breaks, we probably can’t fix it. All of which is to say - like deep magic, but also evil.
- Fragile
- “Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and disastrously to abnormal but expected external stimuli; e.g., a file system that is usually totally scrambled by a power failure is said to be brittle [fragile].”
- Undocumented
- Relies on knowledge not kept anywhere but the implementer’s head. At any rate, you don’t have it.
- YouAreNotExpectedToUnderstandThis
- “The canonical comment describing something magic or too complicated to bother explaining properly. From an infamous comment in the context-switching code of the V6 Unix kernel.” Don’t go there, okay? Just don’t.