RE: After 5

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robin Berjon [mailto:robin@w3.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 6:16 AM
> 
> Hi Adrian,

Hi, Robin!

> On 16/09/2014 23:12 , Adrian Roselli wrote:
> >> From: Jirka Kosek [mailto:jirka@kosek.cz] Although I'm far from being
> >> fan of "Living Standard" approach, "Fixed Standard" is not good
> >> enough -- you need to know what parts of standard are widely
> >> implemented and thus are ready to use. Developer needs simple table
> >> where he/she can easily check whether he can safely use feature or
> >> not. He doesn't care whether feature is defined in HTML spec, Canvas
> >> spec or any other spec. He cares whether it's safe to use feature on
> >> project for client who still uses IE8.
> >
> > I have to ask, but isn't that outside of the scope of the W3C? Or at
> > least this WG? Isn't the job here to define specs, not to track and
> > report on which UA supports which spec and how well?
> 
> It is out of the scope of this WG in the sense that this WG isn't responsible for
> the whole Web Platform Tests project. But this WG is, at least theoretically, a
> stakeholder in that project and has an obligation to produce tests for it. So it's
> a question worth asking.

Fair enough, but I don't think the tests that are written here to verify that a feature has been implemented (ideally correctly) are at all what developers come to find when looking for browser support. Partly because the tests aren't ongoing and don't track changes in support over time (bugs, tweaks, etc) which seems hard to do in the new constant release cycle some have adopted.

> > I rely on sites like Can I Use or research like PPK's to tell me what
> > is supported across UAs. I don't come to W3C specs for that.
> 
> The goal isn't to replace CanIUse, but rather to publish high-quality, fine-
> grained test results for our specs. CIU is nice but it is in places woefully
> incomplete. If CIU wants to take our data and slap a nice interface in front of
> them, that's great.

Agreed on all points, but don't discount that CIU is a de facto resource I see referenced again and again for tracking browser support, not W3C.

So all that being said, does W3C want to become that leader in tracking ongoing browser support for all features defined across all its specs?

If so, I think it's an uphill battle. If not, then discussing anything beyond initial support tests feels moot.

And now I have wandered (I think) off topic.

> Also, the kind of in-depth analysis that PPK does is probably beyond what a
> test suite can achieve, but I would hope that when we publish the data it
> makes his life easier in producing such research.

Received on Wednesday, 17 September 2014 14:01:07 UTC