replacing earl:inferred with aggregation logic (Issue #7a)

Dear group,

The issue with earl:inferred is described in the following mail:
  [1] <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-ert/2007Jul/0052>

This proposal was discussed on the teleconferences of 1st and 29th of 
August ([2] and [3]) with no definitive resolution. However, it seems 
that there were several voice for "Option B" which would replace this 
value with a logic of how to combine sub-tests.

Here is an example:
  - An assertion on WCAG 1.0 Level AA is made based upon the assertions 
of all the Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints (it isn't a test by itself, it 
is a combination of the tests on the checkpoint level).
  - Formerly the way to do this was to describe the test mode for this 
assertion as "inferred", to mean that it has been deduced rather than 
actually a result of a test execution.
  - A different approach could be to combine how the individual tests 
were carried out and make a statement on this testing mode. This seems 
like a more intuitive and more informative approach.

Here is how a simple logic for combining test modes could look like:
  #1. if all sub-tests were carried out in "manual" mode, then the test 
mode of the combined test is "manual".
  #2. if all sub-tests were carried out in "automatic" mode, then the 
test mode of the combined test is "automatic".
  # 3. any combination of "manual", "automatic", or "semi-automatic" 
concludes that the test mode is "semi-automatic".

It is also possible to keep "inferred" as an additional modifier to the 
test mode. However, this leads back to the question of where was it 
inferred from and how -the "evidence" discussion we agreed was out of 
scope for EARL (but rather part of a test description language).

Any thoughts or comments on the above?

[2] <http://www.w3.org/2007/08/29-er-minutes>
[3] <http://www.w3.org/2007/08/01-er-minutes>

Regards,
   Shadi


-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra     Web Accessibility Specialist for Europe |
Chair & Staff Contact for the Evaluation and Repair Tools WG |
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)           http://www.w3.org/ |
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI),   http://www.w3.org/WAI/ |
WAI-TIES Project,                http://www.w3.org/WAI/TIES/ |
Evaluation and Repair Tools WG,    http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/ |
2004, Route des Lucioles - 06560,  Sophia-Antipolis - France |
Voice: +33(0)4 92 38 50 64          Fax: +33(0)4 92 38 78 22 |

Received on Wednesday, 5 September 2007 08:40:01 UTC