Re: CR exit criteria and features at risk for HTML5

On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Boris Zbarsky wrote:

> On 8/15/12 11:10 AM, Henri Sivonen wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 2:43 AM, Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com> wrote:
>>> W3C Management feels strongly that getting to REC quickly is essential, 
>>> and more important than creating an extensive test suite or proving 
>>> interoperability in detail.
>> 
>> Can reasoning be provided for this strong feeling?
>
> Indeed.  Experience shows that the result will most likely be a REC that 
> can't actually be implemented without breaking web compat, so UAs will either 
> not follow the REC or errata will be needed on an ongoing basis.

Is there anyone who believes that won't be the case anyway?

> Which raises the question of why such a REC is better than a CR that is 
> updated based on implementation and testing feedback.  I would really like to 
> understand the reasons why W3C Management thinks it is.

I assume it is because Rec activates parts of the Process related to IPR.

As far as I can tell the most serious danger of the less strict Process is 
that some people might decide there is less value to them in releasing 
their tests if they aren't being taken as hard currency in exchange for a 
Rec.

On the other hand, I don't think that the desire to get to Rec. -- rather 
than the desire to achieve interoperability and a solid platform -- is a 
good motivator for writing high quality tests that expose weaknesses in 
the spec or in browser behaviout. And fixing trivial -- in their effect, 
but perhaps not in their ease of patching -- bugs that are needed 
to get through Process hurdles seems strictly less valuable than fixing 
important bugs that are actually affecting users.

So in my ideal world, the development of the testsuite continues almost 
unaffected by the decision here. Certianly I don't foresee it affecting 
Opera's desire to make our tests public. Possibly it is hopelessly naive 
of me to think that the same will be true for others?

Received on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 18:50:49 UTC