Re: RFC 2119 keywords, prose, and Conformance Re: experience generating EARL for GRDDL test results

Hi Karl,

Thanks for sharing the wiki resource on RFC keywords, I was unaware of 
it and it is very helpful.

I think the issue in this particular case is the wording of the text 
rather than the intended meaning. The intention was not to say "2 + 2 
MUST be 4" but much more "an instance of Class type X must provide 
properties A, B, and C". I believe this type of statement would be more 
inline with RFC 2119. Do you agree?

Regards,
   Shadi


Karl Dubost wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> (feel free to drop names and lists if you think the audience is too wide)
> 
> RFC 2119 and Conformance is a whole another topic… which has created 
> discussions in the belated QA WG.
> 
> Le 16 janv. 2007 à 03:49, Dan Connolly a écrit :
>> Looking at [1], I see
>>   "An Assertion must have at least the following properties"
>> that's odd too.
>>
>> [[
>> I think it's a misuse of RFC2119 to say things like "2 + 2 MUST be 4" 
>> or "every attribute value in an XML document MUST be quoted." Better 
>> to just say "2 + 2 is 4" and "every attribute value in an XML document 
>> is quoted."
>> ]]
>>  -- "must is for agents", Dan Connolly, Jan 2001
>>  http://www.w3.org/2001/01/mp23
> 
> See also
> http://esw.w3.org/topic/RfcKeywords
> 
> With Danc's proposal here, let's state that we only use "RFC 2119" for 
> agents. There is then a need sometimes to define in a specification what 
> is an assertion and what is simple prose. The only way to do that is, 
> either, having
> 
>     - separate list of testable assertion
>       http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/#write-assertion-gp
>       http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/#consistent-style-principle
>     - a specific markup in the specification to identify what is prose
> 
> QA Specification Guidelines says:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/#norm-informative-gp
> 
>     "Specify in the conformance clause how to distinguish
>      normative from informative content."
> 
> with the associated technique
> 
>     "3. Try to avoid language that sounds normative in an
>      informative section. It might lead the readers to wrong
>      assumptions."
> 
> But sometimes it is not that easy. Forbidding the use of RFC 2119 
> keywords is odd too, there are just English terms.
> 
> 
> Question:
>    - Does the term "agents" include humans?
> 
> 
> 
> --Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
> W3C Conformance Manager, QA Activity Lead
>   QA Weblog - http://www.w3.org/QA/
>      *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra     Web Accessibility Specialist for Europe |
Chair & Staff Contact for the Evaluation and Repair Tools WG |
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Received on Tuesday, 16 January 2007 09:08:25 UTC