Re: Requirements for (level >=3) tests

On Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 2:40:56 AM, Boris wrote:


BZ> If the test is not easy to analyze, it's generally hard to impossible to
BZ> tell whether the test is demonstrating a bug in the test or a bug in 
BZ> browsers, especially if several browsers agree on their rendering of the
BZ> test.

BZ> Note that being easy to analyze is the important thing; good coding 
BZ> practice is only relevant insofar as it aids analysis.

Agreed.

Further, a good test may deliberately use what would otherwise be bad coding practice.

When coding in general, smooth fallback in the case of non-implementation of a particular feature is desirable. For a test, accidental false positives are undesirable; the test will be designed to break very obviously if a particular feature is not correctly implemented.

People learning CSS should thus not be looking at the test suite for examples on how to use a particular feature in practice.

-- 
 Chris Lilley   Technical Director, Interaction Domain                 
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead, Fonts Activity Lead
 Co-Chair, W3C Hypertext CG
 Member, CSS, WebFonts, SVG Working Groups

Received on Thursday, 23 February 2012 08:01:49 UTC