D010 - Honest failure over plausible output

Status: decided Date: 2026-08-19

Where orbistoun does not know an answer it says so: an empty result is an error, and no constant, error code or arity is invented to make something compile or run.

Why: an empty import list reads as "this title needs nothing", which is never true. A plausible wrong answer is acted on; an explicit "not handled" costs the same to write and is worth more.

Rejected:

• Returning empty or default values on failure: indistinguishable from success.
• Guessed constants marked for later review: the guess ships as fact.