Table evaluation

Hi, at our last teleconference we went in circles a bit about a desire to
encapsulate techniques for each Checkpoint separately, and the observation
that some things the E/R tool may discover may be relevant to how it should
process multiple Checkpoints under Guideline 5. I thought I'd try to
transform the ER Techniques for Guideline 5 into some other formats to see
if it helps us to see things better.

Attached is a .gif file "table_checks.gif" which contains a flowchart of how
I understand the current Techniques would work, and an HTML file
"table_checks.html" with a table that pretty much says the same thing. There
is also a text narrative at the bottom of this message in case the other two
formats are unusable.

The main thing I noticed when I did this is that we need to know whether a
table is a layout or data table in order to perform all Techniques except
5.5.A (provide summaries). Furthermore, if it is a data table we need to
know whether there are multiple levels of logical headers or not. Those
decisions seem like they could be made outside of specific Techniques - at
the cost of sacrificing encapsulation but with the benefit of making the
fewest number of total decisions.

Anyway, I hope this helps the discussion. Michael

Text description (hopefully not just more confusing)
For any TABLE:
1. Technique 5.5.A: check for a SUMMARY attribute;
2. Determine if this is a layout table or a data table;
2.1 If a layout table:
2.1.1 Technique 5.4.A: check for structural markup;
2.1.2 Technique 5.3.A: make sure it makes sense when linearized;
2.2 If a data table:
2.2.1 If there are multiple levels of logical headers;
2.2.1.1 Technique 5.2.A: check for multiple-level header markup;
2.2.2 Otherwise:
2.2.2.1 Technique 5.1.A: check for simple header markup;
2.2.3 Technique 5.6.A: check for header abbreviations
Done

Michael Cooper
Bobby Project Manager
Technical Designer
CAST, Inc.
39 Cross St.
Peabody, MA  01960
Tel 978-531-8555 x265
TTY 978-538-3110
Fax 978-531-0192
Email mcooper@cast.org
http://www.cast.org/
http://www.cast.org/bobby/