[Bug 5461] Definition of model validation needs wordsmithing

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=5461

           Summary: Definition of model validation needs wordsmithing
           Product: SML
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Macintosh
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Core
        AssignedTo: cmsmcq@w3.org
        ReportedBy: cmsmcq@w3.org
         QAContact: public-sml@w3.org


Section 2.2 defines model validation as:

    Model validation is the process of verifying that all documents 
    in a model are valid with respect to the model's definition 
    documents.

I think there are two ways in which this definition could be improved.

First, it would be good to make it clear(er) that model validation 
involves checking both the individual documents in the model and
also checking the body of documents as a whole (for constraints like
acyclic, where the error is an error of the set as a whole, not 
necessarily locatable in an individual document).  I think that it is
non-controversial that model validation should be understood as making
both these kinds of checks.

Second, the phrase "verifying that all documents in a model are valid"
seems to suggest that the process of model validation somehow fails
to be model validation in the true sense, if what we find out is that
the documents are not actually valid.  Perhaps it would be clearer to
say that model validation is the process of determining whether 
the instance documents in a model are, or are not, valid.

Received on Thursday, 7 February 2008 20:04:21 UTC