Test case document, simple entailment: preferred option.

In addition to the actions on this editor to withdraw a few test cases,
Sandro has raised the issue of identifying simple entailment tests in
the manifest.

Currently these positive and negative simple entailment tests are
distinguished by _omitting_ any test:entailmentRules entries on the test
description.

DanC, however, points out that the closed world assumption which is
embodied in this choice makes running the test cases in some harnesses
problematical.

Although he didn't directly point it out, the current design uses that
assumption when describing test cases using other entailment rules; in
addition, such an assumption is required for dealing with the
declaration of "supported" datatypes that a test case requires.


A full "fix" for this would be to adopt the rdf Collection mechanism for
describing the entailment rules and the datatype support of a test case.

A prime motivation for the manifest format is that it should be readily
usable without recourse to a full RDF parser (the RDF format is a
"bonus"). At the time the test case manifest format was outlined, a
convenient shorthand for collections wasn't present in the syntax.
However, such syntax is now straightforward.

The change to the syntax and appearance of a manifest file would be
minimal. However, there are two large "cons" to this fix:

- firstly, existing test case harnesses would need largish (compared to
the alternative proposal) changes to accommodate this change

- since the WebOnt test cases build upon the schema for RDF test cases,
a change of this nature here would have an impact on the WebOnt test
cases. (I think Jeremy expressed this better.)


A simpler "fix" is the explicit adoption of a test:entailmentRules
marker to test cases that utilise the simple entailment rules. In this
case, the marker would be:

<test:entailmentRules rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/rdf-tests/rdfcore/testSchema#simleEntailment" />


There are five test cases whose manifest entries would need to be
amended with this markup. In addition, the testcase schema document
would receive a description for this resource (which is a manifest
constant indicating simple entailment rules should be applied). Finally,
the following text would be added to the test case document where the
Positive Entailment Tests are described (Negative Entailment Tests are
described by reference to this section)

[[
If the following element is present
<test:entailmentRules rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/rdf-tests/rdfcore/testSchema#simleEntailment" />
then the test succeeds if the entailment holds according to the rules of
simple entailment as specified in [RDF-SEMANTICS].
]]

According to DanC in discussion post-telecon today, this would satisfy
his requirements.


Consequently, having laid out the options, I'd strongly suggest that the
WG (well, the chairs) approve the second change as an editorial fix; it
represents least impact on existing test harnesses, DanC says it
suffices and it doesn't hurt the WebOnt test cases.


With approval of this I can fix the editor's WD (in addition to
withdrawl of the test cases listed in the actions against me) and have
the document ready on Monday.

Cheers,
jan


-- 
jan grant, ILRT, University of Bristol. http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/
Tel +44(0)117 9287088 Fax +44 (0)117 9287112 http://ioctl.org/jan/
YKYBPTMRogueW... you try to move diagonally in vi.

Received on Friday, 7 November 2003 12:05:10 UTC