RE: [CSS21] Test Suite

On Sat, 24 Jul 2004, Mark Moore wrote:
>
> Ian, you'll address this a couple of lines ahead, but the point is you
> *do* need to establish initial conditions for the tests.

Not sure what you mean here. The test suite will define the expected
initial conditions (96dpi resolution, black/blue/purple/white colours, 16
pixels initial font size, etc).


> Initial values are simply *not* testable because of the lack of
> specification of a default style sheet.  The UA is free to implement one
> or not [1], and the content (if one is implemented) is completely
> unspecified and only weakly outlined. [2]

Theoretically, maybe. In practice this is a non-issue; market needs pretty
much force very similar initial stylesheets.


> If the only requirements are the few you mention at the start of your
> Friday post (black text on white background...), wouldn't it be more
> succinct to document them as a small set of rules?

The requirements are probably much more complex, I only listed the things
users would typically change in their preferences. I don't know if I could
even list all the expected conditions.


> If the requirements are really the dozens of rules you worry about
> (which I believe is true), don't you need to tell the user/test engineer
> about these?

I'm sure there'll be a paragraph that lists the expected initial
conditions in the introduction.


> Again, wouldn't it be more precise to document the prerequisites in a
> style sheet?

I don't see how that would really help. Most test engineers that would be
expected to go through such tests probably don't understand CSS, at least
not as well as they would a nice paragraph of English prose.


> In the end, how do you imagine the user will generate whatever initial
> conditions you require?  Won't they just change the default style sheet
> (or something equivalent) to reflect your requirements?

I imagine that they will go into their UA's prefs.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Saturday, 24 July 2004 16:56:12 UTC