eighty-twenty rule
eighty-twenty rule
(programming)For example, parsing e-mail addresses in "From:" lines ine-mail messages is notoriously difficult if you follow the RFC2822 specification. However, about 60% of actual "From:"lines are in the format "From: Their Name
(Adding support for "From: user@host" and "From: user@host(Their Name) " brings coverage to almost 100%, leaving onlyreally baroque things that RFC-2822 permits, like "From:Pete(A wonderful \\) chap)
It is an eternal question whether too much attention is paidto the 80/20 rule (leading to systems that are irrevocablybroken for "unusual" cases), or too little (leading to systemsthat sacrifice usability in the typical case, just so thatrare cases can work properly).
Compare: KISS Principle