Re: GSoC i18n-checker dev AWOL

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your email.

> Richard and I want to spend some time to see if we think it makes sense
to put additional effort into it

I'm glad to hear this. In any case you may give me some 'closure'!

> If you can provide me a sense of what remains [...]

(To recap:) The goals of the project were: To 'update' the existing
i18n-checker by rewriting it in Java; to package it as an API which can be
deployed in other Java applications; and to make it conform to an existing
test suite [0][1][2][3]. At the end of September the new i18n-checker
performed all these functions so we released version '1.0' to Sonatype's
central Maven repository [4].

Alexandre reviewed my code prior to the release. He suggested that the HTML
parsing library I used should be replaced by the (gold standard?)
validator.nu SAX parser. I'm afraid I never finished this; there's an open
ticket relating to this on github.com [5].

I was also keen on the idea of updating the test suite: The old test suite
relies on making HTTP requests (because the HTTP request and response
headers are analysed as part of an i18n check). Because of the way the new
i18n-checker works, this can be simulated off-line [6]. Running off-line
tests would be much quicker. And unless this change is made, the new
i18n-checker is dependent upon the old i18n-checker!

I should also say this: It was a student's project and I was previously
unfamiliar with the inner workings of the W3C (OK, I still am). You may
find that my design and implementation is ignorant of, say, the know-how
that went in to the Unicorn checker. (And I'm certainly no Richard
Ishida!-- By the way Richard, sorry that I keep saying your work is 'old'!)

> [...] any aspirations that would help.

Sorry, I'm not sure what the W3C's aspirations for the checker were. I got
the impression that the whole suite of web developers' QA tools were being
updated, and that I was participating in the process. I may have also heard
rumors that the premium W3C Validator Suite was due to be updated.

I hope this helps.

[0] - The old i18n-checker: http://validator.w3.org/i18n-checker/
[1] - The code repository for the old checker:
https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/i18n-checker/
[2] - The web interface of the old the test suite:
http://qa-dev.w3.org/i18n-checker-test/tests/
[3] - I didn't deviate much from the initial brief:
    http://www.w3.org/2013/03/gsoc2013#i18n-checker-overhaul
[4] - http://search.maven.org/#search%7Cga%7C1%7Ca%3A%22i18n-checker%22
[5] - https://github.com/w3c/i18n-checker/issues/3
[6] - I18nChecker.java exposes an offline method for running checks (line
61):
https://github.com/w3c/i18n-checker/blob/master/src/main/java/org/w3/i18n/I18nChecker.java#L61

Best wishes,

Joe