Re: Proposed rewording of the bundling clause (draft)

Following Tim's comments in:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2005JanMar/0065.html
and my reply in:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2005JanMar/0068.html
and remaining consistent with:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-au/2005JanMar/0061.html

I have dropped the terms "process" and "bundle" and instead have 
elaborated an idea that Tim had to meet the goal of allowing several 
tools to meet ATAG together by changing the definition of authoring tool.

So here is the proposal:

[1] Change the definition of “authoring tool” to include “collections of 
software”.
+ “Service” is removed since it is redundant with “software”.
+ Additional examples from the last call comments that have already been 
accepted by the group are added.
+ Editorial changes to the category definitions have also been made.

PROPOSED NEW WORDING:

ATAG 2.0 defines an "authoring tool" as: any software, or collection of 
software, that authors use to create or modify Web content for 
publication. A software collection is any software products used 
together (e.g. base tool and plug-in) or separately (e.g. markup editor, 
image editor, and validation tool), regardless of whether there has been 
any formal collaboration between the developers of the products.

To help illustrate the range of this definition, an authoring function 
categorization scheme has been developed. The scheme is used primarily 
within the Techniques document [ATAG20-TECHS] to call out examples that 
may be of interest to developers of particular types of tools. Note: 
many authoring tools will include authoring functions that fall into one 
or more of the categories (e.g. many basic HTML editors have both 
code-level and WYSIWYG editing views):

Code-level Authoring Functions: Authors work directly with the markup or 
program code that constitute the Web content. This includes plain text 
editing, but also the manipulation of symbolic representations that are 
sufficiently fine-grained that they allow the author the same freedom of 
control as plain text editing (e.g. graphical tag placeholders).
Examples: text editors, text editors enhanced with graphical tags, etc.

WYSIWYG ("What-you-see-is-what-you-get") Authoring Functions: Authors 
work with entities that closely resemble the final appearance and 
behavior of the Web content.
Examples: rendered document editors, bitmap graphics editors, etc.

Object Oriented Authoring Functions: Authors work with functional 
abstractions of the low level aspects of the Web content.
Examples: timelines, waveforms, vector-based graphic editors, objects 
representing graphical widgets (menus, etc.), etc.

Indirect Authoring Functions: Authors work with high-level parameters 
related to the automated production of the Web content. This includes 
interfaces that assist the author to create and organize Web content 
without the author having control over the markup, structure, or 
programming implementation.
Examples: content management systems, site building wizards, site 
management tools, courseware, blogging tools, content aggregators, 
model-based authoring tools, and conversion tools, etc.


[2] Change to: 3.2.3 Conformance Profiles

ADD LINES
6. Required: The name and version number of the authoring tool. If the 
authoring tool is a collection of software, include the names and 
version numbers of all of the constituents of the collection. For 
constituents that are theoretically interchangeable with other software 
products (e.g. text editors), it is permitted to include the names and 
version numbers of other software options only when they have been 
tested as part of the conformance evaluation.
7. Required: If the authoring tool is a collection of software provide a 
description of the workflow that was used for the evaluation.


[3] Remove entire section: “3.2.2 Bundling Authoring Tools”


[4] Remove “(or bundle of authoring tools)” from first line in 3.2 
Claiming Conformance.


[5] Remove “or tool bundle” from 3.2.4 Conformance Details

---

Cheers,
Jan

-- 
Jan Richards, M.Sc.
User Interface Design Specialist
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC), University of Toronto

   Email: jan.richards@utoronto.ca
   Web:   http://jan.atrc.utoronto.ca
   Phone: 416-946-7060
   Fax:   416-971-2896

Received on Tuesday, 5 April 2005 15:05:44 UTC