Re: handles for technical specs

At 19:59 20/04/2009, Shadi Abou-Zahra wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Christophe Strobbe wrote:
>>Dear TSD TF participants,
>>One of the issues that were discovered during the implemenation of 
>>the new test samples database is that it would be desriable to have 
>>a "handle" for technical specs referenced by the 'technicalSpec' 
>>element <http://bentoweb.org/refs/TCDL2.0.html#edef-technicalspec>.
>>The reasons are
>>(1) that not every spec has an official URL (although it would be 
>>possible to use e.g. Wikipedia URLs if there is no URL from a 
>>standards body or a vendor for a spec) and
>>(2) that the 'specName' element is an element type with mixed 
>>content that is prone to accidental changes (insertion of line 
>>breaks during XSLT processing or "indent XML" actions, conversion 
>>of entity references to actual Unicode characters) that make string 
>>comparison in the database less reliable than expected.
>>We could address this by adding e.g. an attribute called 'handle' 
>>to the 'technicalSpec' element. We should then also agree on the 
>>values to be used in this new construct (consistency can be 
>>enforced by means of Schematron). For example, we could use values 
>>such as the following:
>>* w3c_xhtml10 (XHTML 1.0),
>>* w3c_css20 (CSS 2.0),
>>* w3c_css21 (CSS 2.0),
>>* ecma_262 (JavaScript),
>>* ms_wmv (Microsoft Windows Media Video),
>>* ms_asf (Microsoft ASF),
>>* ...
>>Of course we could also choose more "human friendly" values. Any thoughts?
>
>I suggest W3C shortnames or MIME-like names where applicable. Examples:
>  - XHTML10
>  - CSS20
>  - CSS21
>  - ECMA262
>  - WMV
>  - ASF

I have added a "handle" attribute to the "technicalSpec" element and 
also added it to our documentation. See:
* <http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tests/usingTCDL>
* <http://bentoweb.org/refs/TCDL2.0.html#adef-handle>
* <http://bentoweb.org/refs/schemas/tcdl2.0.xsd>
* <http://bentoweb.org/refs/TCDL2.0/tcdl2.0.tsdtf.sch>

The following handles are currently in use (in our test samples):
* XHTML10 - XHTML 1.0
* CSS20 - CSS Level 2
* SMIL10 - SMIL 1.0

* QUICKTIME - Apple QuickTime
* ECMA262 - JavaScript/ECMAScript
* MSDHTML - Microsoft DHTML Reference (for elements such as embed)
* WMA9 - Windows Media Audio
* WMV9 - Windows Media Video
* MIDI - Musical Instruments Digital Interface (MIDI)

* OFCOMAUDIODESC - OFCOM Guidance on Standards for Audio Description 
(this is actually not a technology)
* OFCOMCAPTIONS - OFCOM Guidance on Standards for Subtitling (see above)

Best regards,

Christophe


>I think we should maintain casing but not depend on it. For 
>instance, "Java" rather than "java" or "JAVA" etc. Acronyms can be 
>in caps. This will help when presenting these handles to DB users.
>
>
>Best,
>   Shadi
>
>--
>Shadi Abou-Zahra - http://www.w3.org/People/shadi/ |
>   WAI International Program Office Activity Lead   |
>  W3C Evaluation & Repair Tools Working Group Chair |

-- 
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD
Research Group on Document Architectures
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BELGIUM
tel: +32 16 32 85 51
http://www.docarch.be/
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Received on Tuesday, 5 May 2009 17:28:30 UTC