[cs615asa] HW3 Getting the hostname

[Jan Schaumann]

Rob Hoffmann <rhoffman at stevens.edu> wrote:

> Currently my script runs the describe command X number of times before  
> it "times out", but I'm not sure if this is a good approach as some AMIs  
> may take longer to boot than others and X might end up being too small.  
> Is there another way I should be looking at this issue? Should I simply  
> trust that the instances will always boot?

Think about it: does assuming that an instance will boot sound like a
good thing to do?  How will your program behave if it doesn't?

When implementing a solution, consider the user's expectations.  If you
were using a tool like the one you're writing, how would you like it to
behave?

Would you like using a tool that may be unresponsive indefinitely?
Would you like a tool that is always immediately responsive but that
doesn't actually return deterministic results?

I'm sure you'll find the right answer by thinking about the above
questions.

-Jan