Re: Towards a better testsuite: Metadata

On 13/04/2016 01:09, Florian Rivoal wrote:
> If we're using markup in a way that is unconventional enough that people won't get it without looking at the documentation, I am not sure what we gain over an assert meta.
>
> Also, considering that a key goal is to enable synchronization from browser vendors' test repos, this is not going to be super friendly. Existing tests won't be conforming to this pattern, since it is not standard. So we'd have to fix the tests after importing them, but there's no automated way to detect which tests have an assertion-in-a-title, and which just have an old fashioned title. Also, I don't know for sure, but there is a chance that the title element is already used in some way in the vendors internal systems, and that this usage would be disturbed by us changing it and synchronizing back.
>
> My preference still goes to the assert meta.
>
> * Unlike the flags meta, you don't need to look up the documentation to know how to write it. You need to be made aware that it exists, but once you are, the actual syntax is completely obvious.
>
> * We can programmatically detect which tests don't have one when importing large amount of tests from external sources
>
> * It doesn't go against authoring habits. Sure, people aren't used to writing one, but unlike a title element, they don't have a conflicting preconceived notion of how it should be used.

+1 to all that. Thanks Florian.

Just so that it's clear, my suggestion about title on title was only an 
attempt to prevent us ending up even further out there in the direction 
of what i still think is a bad solution – actually i agree with Florian 
that repurposing the title element content to save just a small number 
of keystrokes is not a good idea, and in addition is not worth the 
refactoring work that it will involve.

ri

Received on Wednesday, 13 April 2016 11:13:19 UTC