SVG 1.2 and SVG 2.0 - Use Cases Document

I would like to suggest that the WG consider producing an explicit, 
free-standing Use Cases document for SVG 1.2 and SVG 2.0.

Several points lead me to that suggestion.

1. The WG is clearly looking to see how SVG can be better communicated. I 
think a Use Cases document can assist in improving communication of SVG to a 
wider audience.

2. Anything but a non-trivial software project is likely to have Use Cases, 
however they may be elicited or recorded. So why shouldn't W3C 
specifications? Making use cases explicit helps to focus attention on the 
result being aimed for and which users benefit from what additional 
functionality. I see this as being different from a Requirements document 
which can tend to focus on technical solutions to, sometimes, poorly or 
inadequately expressed user needs.

The user is king. The user, ultimately, funds W3C through member company 
profits. If a spec doesn't meet real user needs, then I would suggest that it 
needs to be reviewed.

3. A Use Cases document which expresses ... in terms relevant to users ... 
what SVG can do now, what it can't do (yet) and what it is hoped to do in SVG 
version x.x provides a logical, helpful way in for people not yet using SVG 
but who want to know what it can do without reading 800 pages of material. If 
the potential and capabilities of SVG can be succinctly expressed in a 
well-written Use Cases document, then a casual interest in SVG might become 
something much more active. I see a Use Cases document of that type as being 
an effective SVG evangelisation tool.

4. I have watched many W3C specifications through assorted WDs etc to Rec 
status. My impression is that it is specifications without clearly expressed 
use case documents that are more problematic. I know that is a sweeping 
statement, but I am trying to convey impressions from having spent many, many 
hours reading W3C specifications and watching how they are communicated and 
how the technologies specified turn out.

I would like to see Use Cases documents adopted as a routine by W3C Working 
Groups. They are, in my view, potentially of signficant assistance to users 
and to WG members alike.

Andrew Watt

Received on Wednesday, 30 April 2003 04:17:57 UTC