Re: [whatwg] HTML has no definition / automated test suite

On Sat, Nov 1, 2014 at 7:18 AM, Stefan Reich
<stefan.reich.maker.of.eye@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi WhatWG and friends!
>
> I am currently making an AI to create HTML. In the process, I discovered a
> logical problem: HTML is not clearly defined. Not as far as I know anyway.
>
> A proper definition of HTML would include collections of sample HTML source
> plus IMAGES of how they look rendered.
>
> That, my AI could work with.
>
> Also, I think this is very important to have - I vividly remember all those
> years of fighting with browser inconsistencies and the very undefinedness I
> am talking about that still exists. (More on my blog at tinybrain.de).
>
> Q: Does such a test suite for HTML exist? If not, it is time to create that.
>
> Alternatively, what one could create is a virtualized browser. My AI could
> also learn from that, basically. But a virtualized browser is a complicated
> piece of software, and there is no proper infrastructure for virtual
> programs yet (another lack in IT today).
>
> So I assume a test suite of sources + images will be easier to make right
> now.
>
> Let's define HTML properly!

The behavior of HTML is well-defined; where it's not, it's a bug, and
reporting it would be appreciated.

You're talking about rendering, which is the domain of CSS.  CSS
should also be reasonably well-defined.

Examples, including example renderings, are often useful for
understanding, but they're never part of an actual definition. They
just help the reader visualize something quickly, rather than
requiring them to understand it all from the code.

~TJ

Received on Saturday, 1 November 2014 15:53:54 UTC