Re: Comments on Widgets 1.0: Requirements - Editor's Draft 15 August 2008

Hi Josh,
Please approve the following corrections. Your comments did not
require any further clarification from my part.

Kind regards,
Marcos

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 2:57 PM, timeless <timeless@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://dev.w3.org/2006/waf/widgets-reqs/ - Editor's Draft  15 August 2008
>
> I'm very sorry about the delay, other things came up, most of my
> comments below are really English grammar notes and aren't
> particularly important (some are spelling which are just embarrassing)

I put them in on purpose to keep you on your toes:)

> I believe my only major comment, which I didn't learn until last week
> (i.e. I wouldn't have known to comment about before the expiry period)
> is this point on 4-R12:
>
> I ran across a problem here (in 4-R12); we're internally discussing
> proxies (for mobile devices) that want to recompress data on the fly,
> they'd *love* to compress the files in a zip (thereby reducing the
> download size to the device), but in order for that to work, we'd need
> to make sure it doesn't break the signing. In general, keeping the
> radio on for larger downloads is a significant drain on device use
> time, and as such anything that can enable devices to leave it on for
> shorter periods is seen as a significant win (note this isn't asking
> that people use BZ2 or some extremely expensive to decompress
> algorithm, although I'm not actually sure if even that would be more
> expensive than the radio, but simple compression algorithms are
> definitely cheaper).

(This now refers to R11). The spec is designed in such a way that
recompressing will not break the signature.

> And yes, I'm aware that some people may download archives which have
> external pgp signatures. I don't expect mobile devices behind such
> proxies to have any interest in doing that, whereas I do expect them
> to want to access widgets. Given some of the things that the proxies
> have considered doing, I'm fairly certain they're not particularly
> worried about breaking a pgp signature (they don't seem to mind lossy
> image compression) .
>
> 3-Web and offline distribution:
>> It must be possible to perform updates from either an online or offline source.
>
> but not both?

True. Changed to "It must be possible to perform updates from online
and offline sources"

>> * Already a de facto standard on market-leading widget user agents on both desktops and mobile devices.
>
> this sounds wrong w/o "included" or "supported", but i don't know how to fix it.

Changed to "already the supported de facto standard on market-leading
widget user agents "

> 4-R7-Rationale:
>> ...variation in character encoding ...may render a widget ...inoperable ...unless a comment character encoding is used.
>
> 'comment'?

Fixed.

> 4-R12
>
>> authorities (i.e., multiple signatures).
>
> drop the comma here - only use it for lists - see (e.g. 100 years from
> date of the a specification reaching "Recommendation Status" W3C
> Process)

fixed.

> 4-R16-Copyright Notice and License Metadata
>
>> A conforming specification MUST specify the structure and semantics of fields that explicitly reference, or otherwise include, a software license agreement or notice, and declare who holds the copyright for the widget, as well as a model for how this data must be processed by a widget user agent.
>
> the English here seems wrong 'and' again seems to be in the wrong
> place .... actually the sentence is just too long and complicated. :)

Broke it up into two sentences.

> R17. Visual Rendering Dimensions
>
>> or any dimensional values implicitly computed by the widget user agent.
>
> should we make sure there's a way to let user specified styles
> override application styles?
>
> ...
>
> 4-R18-Rationale:
>> ... (e.g., '/ui/clock.svg').
>
> drop , (see earlier)

fixed

>> Alternatively, the bootstrap might be a Web page that when combined with the visual rendering dimensions requirement displays at the appropriate size.
>
> "the bootstrap" _process|file|?_

Changed to "resource might be a HTML document that when.."

> 4-R25-Rationale:
>>    NOT A RATIONALE!!
>
> this doesn't look like something that should be published :(

Sorry, that was note to myself. Removed.

> R33. Cross-Widget Communication
>> ("pairing" and "unparring").
>
> unpairing.

fixed.

> R34. Icon API
>>    To allow widget to
>
> widgets (please check globally)
>

Fixed. Checked.

> R36. Open Default System Web Browser
>> To allow author to open a URL in the default system web browser.
>
> authors (please check this globally)

Fixed. Checked.

> R38. Additional Digital Certificates
>> A conforming specification SHOULD NOT recommend that,
>> aside from including standard root certificates,
>> widget user agent allow end-users to install digital certificates
>> from other trusted sources.
>
>> Rationale:
>> To allow authors and publisher to sign widgets.
>
> the requirement and the rationale don't seem to match.

Good point. This was a "SHOULD" and got changed to a SHOULD NOT...
this is now an open issue AFAIK.

> R40. Automatic Updates
>
> what happens if i have 3 instances of a widget? do they all get upgraded?

Open issue. My preference is that, yes, they all get updated. However,
we will deal with that in the spec.

> R43. Default Security Policy
>> To make the default state of a widget as benign as possible.
>
> change state => behavior ?

Sounds good. Changed.

> This is a meta note listing most/each of the 'Motivation' items, most
> of which end in periods, most of which begin with a capital letter and
> most of which seem to almost be sentences, however they have 'and' or
> 'or' in non sentence positions. I'd suggest that these all be changed
> to if possible to try and only use one and/or per sentence, always
> before the last listed element, and to remove capitalization from non
> leading words unless it's strictly required. Oh, and periods should be
> used consistently :)
>
> 'and' before last item:
<snip>
All fixed...

Thanks again!

-- 
Marcos Caceres
http://datadriven.com.au

Received on Friday, 5 September 2008 13:47:58 UTC