[Issue 72] Coalescing Subtantive Change and the Classes of Changes

Ian,
You objected to Charles McCathie-Neviles' combination of Change Classes and Substantive Change. Could you accept the change outlined below:

Section 7.6.2 Classes of Changes to a Recommendation says

This document distinguishes the following classes of changes to a Recommendation.

1. No changes to text content
These changes include fixing broken links, style sheets or invalid markup.
2. Corrections that do not affect conformance
Editorial changes or clarifications that do not change the technical content of the specification.
3. Corrections that do not add new features
These changes may affect conformance to the Recommendation. A change that affects conformance is one that:
turns conforming data, processors, or other conforming agents into non-conforming agents, or
turns non-conforming agents into conforming ones, or
clears up an ambiguity or under-specified part of the specification in such a way that an agent whose conformance was once unclear becomes clearly conforming or non-conforming.
4. New features
The first two classes of change require no technical review of the proposed changes. A Working Group may request republication of a Recommendation for these classes of change, or W3C may republish a Recommendation with this class of change. The modified Recommendation is published according to the Team's requirements, including Publication Rules [PUB31] and the Requirements for modification of W3C Technical Reports [PUB@@].

It is suggested that the definition of "Substantive Change" be moved to this section and be changed to say that a Substantive Change is either a class 3 or class 4 change. This removes some of the vagueness ("bug fixes") in the current Substantive Change definition.

Steve Zilles