Look at the specification of the ReadOnlyCollection class, it does implements the IList interface, right.
The IList interface have Add/Update/Read methods, which we call it pre-conditions of the interface. Anywhere in my application if I have an IList I should be able to do all this kind of operations.
But what about if I return a ReadOnlyCollection somewhere in my code and try to call the .Add(…) method? It throws a NotSupportedException. Do you think this is a good example of a bad design? Additionally, is this class breaking the Liskov Substitution Principle?
Why did Microsoft implemented this way? Should it be easier (and better) to make this ReadOnlyCollection implements only the IEnumerable interface (which is, by the way, already readonly)?
I think if there is a bad design going on it is a habit of adding to an IList without checking the ReadOnly property. The habit of programmers to ignore portions of an interface doesn’t mean the interface is poor.
The truth is that few of us programmers ever bother to read the specifications. And truthfully there are many things that seem more exciting to me than sitting down and reading through the entire specification document. (Things like seeing if one really can hold the eyes open with toothpicks for example.) Besides, I have the limitation that I wouldn’t remember everything anyway.
Having said that, one should not use an interface without at least looking at the list of properties and methods. And just what purpose do you think a boolean property named “ReadOnly” is for? Perhaps because the list can be read only for one reason or another. And if you are taking a list passed from someplace outside your own code you should check that the list is not read only before you try to add to it.