RE: I can't code, but...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-html-request@w3.org [mailto:www-html-request@w3.org]On Behalf
> Of Gordon Worley
> Sent: Sunday, January 03, 1999 10:38 PM
> To: www-html
> Subject: Re: I can't code, but...
>
>
> Inanis Brooke wrote:
>
> >If enough of us thought that this was a good idea, how could
> such a program
> >be started?
>
> 	The program starting business I will leave to the suits, but here's
> how it would work.  Each browser wanting to be certified would submit the
> code for their HTML, CSS2, XML, or whatever parser to the W3C.  The W3C
> then goes through their parser and sees which parts of the
> recomendation it
> covers.

If it were as simple as reading the code to determine if it implements the
specs, buggy code would never get written in the first place. A cursory
survey of the robustness and revision history of a few popular programs
should make it obvious that humans can't do this.

> 	I realize that the big-wigs at Microsoft will probably be reluctant
> at first, but competition will more likely than not take care of their
> unwillingness to show their code to the W3C.

The only pragmatic means of conformance testing is with exhaustive test
suites. Creating and maintaining such test suites for specs as big as HTML4
and CSS2 is a very big task. There exists a test suite for CSS1, and it is
in the process of being revised. After that, perhaps HTML4 and CSS2 test
suites will be developed. I think I remember something about The Open Group
assisting with this.

Braden

Received on Monday, 4 January 1999 00:43:04 UTC