Re: Towards a better testsuite: Metadata

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 6:23 PM, fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net> wrote:
> On 04/13/2016 07:50 AM, ishida@w3.org wrote:
>>
>> On 12/04/2016 20:10, fantasai wrote:
>>>
>>> <link rel="help" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/...">
>>> <link rel="help" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/...">
>>
>>
>> actually, having to add this specific help metadata is always one of the
>> things that most slows me down and irks me when
>> creating tests. It's certainly important information, but can't we make
>> the link automatically by using a directory structure
>> that matches the document structure.  That's something that would make a
>> real difference to the ease of writing tests.
>>
>> ie. all tests for the section "7.1. Text Alignment: the text-align
>> shorthand" get added to a subdirectory at
>>
>> css-text-3/justification/text-align-property/
>>
>> the tools can then use the directory structure to identify the section to
>> which the test belongs, and bingo you've reduced the
>> work of writing tests to a far greater degree than worrying about one meta
>> element.
>>
>> it also has advantages if the document structure changes. Just move the
>> tests to a different directory - no need to change the
>> metadata or update the file contents everywhere.
>>
>> it also makes it easier for people to locate tests for a particular
>> feature by looking in the repo, rather than having to find
>> other locations that provide such info (if there are any) and tracking
>> down tests from there.
>>
>> it also removes the question of whether my test should point to the TR
>> version of the document or the ED, and btw ask yourself
>> what's the current ED location today.
>>
>> maybe i'm missing something, but handling this automatically seems like a
>> real effort-saver for people creating tests.
>
>
> Well, there are two problems with this
>   * We have tests that test the interaction among sections.
>     These are quite important; they also don't fit into a
>     hierarchical structure.
>   * This requires everyone who uses our tests to mirror
>     our exact file structure.
>   * It centralizes control over the file structure to our
>     mapping file, making that a blocker for adding new
>     directories in the test suite.

I think you can't count to three. :)

I think everyone is happy to mirror such a directory structure (it is,
after all, roughly what everyone does today). I don't think it
requires people who use the tests to mirror the structure more than
the current situation does—if you want two-way mirroring, you
essentially have to use what the upstream repo uses anyway.

I don't see how it makes us reliant on a mapping file, though?

/Geoffrey