> Is it worth making the algorithm slower just to have it work on extreme edge cases?
Yes! If an API has no documented (and preferably enforced) limits on its arguments, the caller has every right to assume the full range of the argument types is supported.
Else it is very much a bug.
“Be reasonable, dude” is ok when you order 1,000 beers. It’s not an appropriate response when calling a binary search API.
Yes! If an API has no documented (and preferably enforced) limits on its arguments, the caller has every right to assume the full range of the argument types is supported.
Else it is very much a bug.
“Be reasonable, dude” is ok when you order 1,000 beers. It’s not an appropriate response when calling a binary search API.