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  • I don't want to make this more complex than it needs to, but I'm not sure that my proposed design is any less future-proof. If a new format comes along, we'd just add a new schema entry, and then validations could be done against both old and new schemas, right? When you say: "you face the possibility that the new serial number format will be something that your mechanism can't cope with," would you explain an example where this wouldn't work? Commented Feb 26, 2013 at 20:56
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    @AndrewPhillips - That's the problem - if there's a hole in your mechanism (and there might not be - regexes are darned powerful things), you probably won't be able to spot it now, because it'll be something so totally outlandish that it would never have occurred to you that anyone would do something like THAT in a serial number. It's obviously your design and your call, but unless you know there's a plan afoot to change the serial number format, why do more work now, which may never be needed? Commented Feb 27, 2013 at 13:21