RE: non-normative best practices & file caching

Also sprach Levantovsky, Vladimir:

 > At the F2F WG meeting we decided to eliminate Appendixes B and C,
 > and integrate their content with either section 8 "Conformance
 > requirements", or add informative notes to the main text of the
 > spec where appropriate (see minutes [1] and WG actions tracker
 > [2]).

Ok. That can work, too. But the draft doesn't say that the notes are
non-normative. I suggest adding this text:

  All notes are non-normative.

 > The relevant text has already been added to section 1 of the
 > current editor's draft [3] which says:
 > 
 > "The WOFF-packaged data will typically be decoded to its original
 > sfnt format for use by existing font-rendering APIs that expect
 > OpenType font data, but such a decoded font should not be exposed
 > as a file on disk, and must not be installed "globally" for use by
 > other processes or documents on the system."
 > 
 > I believe that this updated text has already addressed the concerns
 > raised by Håkon and Christopher - its primary purpose is to limit
 > the exposure of downloaded font resource to other documents and
 > applications, which is also reiterated by the reference to CSS spec
 > requirements.

I would suggest a different wording than "should not be exposed as a
file on disk". I think it's ok for browsers to store decoded fonts in
the file cache. It can be argued that files in the cache are
"exposed". (Even if it's easier for someone to fetch and decode files
from the server than to try make sense of the file cache.) So, I
suggest:

  The WOFF-packaged data will typically be decoded to its original
  sfnt format for use by existing font-rendering APIs that expect
  OpenType font data. It is acceptable for clients to store decoded
  files in a cache, but decoded files should not be installed or used
  by other processes or documents on the system.

In the remaining appendix, one reads:

  This appendix is informative.

Hopefully, all text in the spec -- both the normative and the
non-normative -- is informative. I therefore suggest writing:

  This appendix is informative, not normative.

or 

  This appendix is non-normative.

or

  This appendix is only informative.

Cheers,

-h&kon
              Håkon Wium Lie                          CTO °þe®ª
howcome@opera.com                  http://people.opera.com/howcome

Received on Friday, 1 October 2010 22:06:36 UTC