Code contracts as a proposed middle ground between informal specs and formal verification
In a DotAI 2026 talk, a developer argues that code remains essential to understanding and maintaining critical business systems, even if people no longer write it themselves.
TLDR
The developer argues that fully verifying all code is unrealistic, but informal specifications alone are not enough to maintain critical systems. They propose “code contracts”: structured, free-form specifications kept alongside code, with automation to flag important violations. They say this approach could help engineers understand changes and keep specifications from drifting away from the code.
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