Brainstorm of EARL Requirements

Hi guys,

    first I want to thank you for the opportunity you gave me last night 
with the teleconference. I must confess I was a bit excited, as it was my 
first experience of that kind.

    Anyway, I try to express what are the EARL requirements at the moment, 
based on the current specification.

    As I said during the teleconference, my first approach with EARL was 
really positive (almost 2 years ago - I remember Charles told me about it 
during the 2003 edition of Webbit, in Padova, Italy) but at the end I found 
it quite an abstract thing. Also, the lack of practical examples in the 
specs led me to a progressive and slow detachment.

     I have tried to summarise my contribution in two parts:

1) EARL: generic goals, specific examples (in particular HTML test suite)
**
    That's where, I think, working on a real case like HTML test suite 
could provide us with a real scenario and, at the same time, users with a 
real example. The classical "prendere due piccioni con una fava", as we say 
in italian ("to take two pigeons with a bean", equivalent to your more 
dramatic and cruel "to kill two birds with a stone"). :-)

    As Karl wisely said during the teleconference, EARL goals and 
specifications must stay on a generic level, and I agree with that. But at 
the same time, working on a real case like this could open the road to more 
specific requirements and needs that could eventually be extended to the 
general case. At least this is my opinion, and I am talking about it 
because probably it is the field where I feel more confident.

     Another field of intervention could be providing Wuhkag (another tool 
I have been developing) with an EARL output. Wuhkag is a PHP application 
for manual and human assessment of a website's accessibility according to 
WCAG 1.0. At the end it is able to produce a draft of accessibility policy. 
It is freely downloadable at wuhkag.sf.net and you can test it here 
www.gabrielebartolini.it/wuhkag .

     I could therefore try and implement an EARL output to ht://Check or 
Wuhkag and if someone could help me with that, I would really appreciate 
it. Indeed, I still have to figure out the meaning of some classes and 
properties of the language and, at least in a first stage, I would not mind 
somebody with a bit of EARL experience to help me.

2) Current specs: lack of descriptions and examples regarding classes and 
properties
**
    In the last sentence, I also introduced a problem that I encountered 
when reading the specs. The lack of detailed information about properties 
and classes that are not properly - according to me - discussed and which 
they appear quite obscure and not clear.

    For instance, for every class I would spend more time describing the 
properties, the type of values they can be assigned and their objective. If 
possible I would integrate this information with an example.

    I guess this could be seen as an attempt to move towards a "guide" 
approach, rather than a "cold" and more synthetic "specifications" approach.

That's all for now. Looking forward to hearing your reactions.

Ciao ciao,
-Gabriele

P.S.: Would it be possible to insert ht://Check in the list of evaluations 
tools?
P.P.S.: My name is Gabriele with one 'l' not two (like the french female 
name ... as far as I know I am a man ... :-P)
--
Gabriele Bartolini: Web Programmer, ht://Dig & IWA/HWG Member, ht://Check 
and ht://Miner maintainer
Current Location: Prato, Toscana, Italia
me@gabrielebartolini.it | www.gabrielebartolini.it | ICQ#129221447
 > "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", Dante Alighieri, Divina 
Commedia, Inferno

Received on Wednesday, 23 February 2005 10:16:27 UTC