boundbased

Boundbased is an informal term used in computer science to describe design and analysis approaches that build around explicit, enforceable bounds. The central idea is that software components expose bounded interfaces and perform only within defined limits, while out-of-bound situations are treated in a predictable and contained manner.

Core principles include the use of bound types as first-class values, static or runtime enforcement of limits, and contract-based reasoning that emphasizes containment and safe composition. Bound types encode ranges or resource quotas (such as memory, time, or input size). Static analysis, model checking, and bounded runtime checks are used to verify that operations remain within the specified bounds. When a bound is reached, systems typically generate bounded outcomes, such as errors or throttling, rather than allowing unbounded escalation.

Applications are found in safety-critical and resource-constrained domains, including embedded systems, real-time processing, and numerical computing. In boundbased design, APIs declare explicit bounds, components negotiate limits, and containment guarantees help prevent cascading failures.

Relation to and differences from related ideas: boundbased intersects with bounded rationality, bounded arithmetic, and contract-based design, but it is not a formal standard. The term is used variably across projects, sometimes to describe a programming discipline, sometimes to describe a verification methodology.

See also: boundedness, bound types, contract-based design, bounded rationality, resource accounting.