What does "implement to" mean?

Question

On UEFI page we can read:

Acknowledging that you understand a license is required to implement to the Specification does not now or in future commit you either to completing an Adopter's Agreement or to doing any implementation work. If you are planning to implement to the Specification, please complete and return the separate Adopter Membership Agreement to obtain the proper license.

Does this "to implement to the Specification" mean creating software based on the Specification, creating software using functionality exported by implementation of the Specification or contributing to the Specification in this case? And, is the closest synonym of "to implement to"?

Answer 1

Implement software conforming to the specification, fulfilling all its premises. A very common business requirement that also makes (often incorrect) assumption that the software will cooperate flawlessly with whatever it is to be written for.

It's a common short form used in the industry for that. The specification defines requirements the software must fulfill, often in very minute detail. The industry standard definition of correct software is one that fulfills all these requirements.

Of course now whether the specification was correct or not... the unofficial name for this approach is demonology, for wizards who summoned demons had to be extremely precise in defining their wishes, for the demons were extremely literal in interpreting them and given any wiggle space would fulfill them in such a way as to cause maximum harm and grief (but still stay true to the letter of the wish). Programmers writing to specification, especially to bad specification in bad work environment often choose this method of fulfilling the wishes of the customer...