should
Should is a word people use to give advice or express what they think is right. It carries a sense of obligation, expectation, or recommendation. Someone might say you should eat vegetables, meaning it would be good for you but not forcing you.
What a model may hear
- assertion method software testing frameworks
- Expect a condition to be true and throw an error if it is not, halting execution
- RFC requirement level technical specifications and standards documents
- Treat a statement as recommended but not mandatory behavior, per RFC 2119
- modal verb for conditionals natural language processing and grammar parsing
- Tag as expressing weak necessity, hypothetical, or deontic modality
- dependency version constraint package managers like Ruby Bundler
- Allow updates within specified bounds, looser than must or exact version pins
Where people and models part ways
“This should work”
Meant: I hope or expect this will work
May be taken as: Assume the user has written a test assertion or is confident enough to enforce the condition
Say instead: “I hope this works, or test whether this works”
“You should know that”
Meant: I think it would be good if you knew that
May be taken as: Interpret as a formal requirement or specification of expected knowledge
Say instead: “It would be helpful if you knew that”
“What should I do?”
Meant: Please give me advice or suggestions
May be taken as: Treat as request for a mandatory procedure or a test assertion to write
Say instead: “What do you recommend I do?”
“It should be here by now”
Meant: I expected it to arrive but it has not
May be taken as: Generate a test expecting presence or assume a fulfilled requirement
Say instead: “I expected it to be here by now”
Tips
- Use must or must not when you mean a hard requirement, since should is weaker in technical contexts
- Say expect or check if you want a model to write a test, not should
- Replace should with expect or anticipate when talking about predictions to avoid test-frame confusion
- Use recommended or advisable instead of should when giving casual advice to a model
- Be explicit about obligation level: say required, optional, or merely suggested
Often confused with
- must
- stronger, mandatory requirement in RFCs and logic
- shall
- more formal and often legally binding obligation
- expect
- testing assertion without the modal ambiguity
- would
- hypothetical or conditional, not normative
- ought
- similar moral weight but rarer in technical writing
- assert
- programmatic check, never ambiguous with advice