Re: DOM WG Specification questionnaire

QAWG --

Dom and I have an AI to send the questionnaire to chairs/team contacts.  As 
I was incorporating last week's telecon discussion about when and how to 
reply, I thought that it might be best (less distracting) to reduce the 
technical detail in the message itself, in favor of one or more references.

Here is a proposed revision (full original questionnaire follows).  What do 
you think?  In particular, should we replace reference [2] with these three 
detailed ones, that point to where the information about granular grammars 
is found in SpecGL:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-qaframe-spec-20020826/#b2b3b3c59
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-qaframe-spec-20020826/#b2b3b3d123
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-qaframe-spec-20020826/#b2b3b3d677

Or, might this run the risk of turning the questionnaire request into 
another argument thread about taggable test assertions?

### Proposed new intro ###
[Chairs,]
[Team contacts,]

The QAWG needs your help in completing a survey of document technologies 
currently in use by W3C's editors.  Please pass this along to your project 
editors, and urge them to take 5 minutes (estimated) to fill in the 
questionnaire.

Backgound:  We have had a lively email thread [1] about using structured 
grammars -- e.g., an enhancement of "XMLspec", or XHTML customized with 
class attributes -- to enhance the testability of specifications and 
facilitate the building of associated test materials.  This theme is also 
represented in the current "QA Framework:  Specification Guidelines" 
[2].  This survey is a first step in determining what, if anything, we 
might be able to provide in terms of common tools and techniques to help 
authors.  Depending on the outcome, QAWG may put resources into prototype(s).

References:

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-qa/2002May/0000.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-qaframe-spec-20020826/Contents

Please reply by:  1 October (a week before our next face-to-face meeting).

Please reply to:

1.)  Preferred:  www-qa-wg@w3.org.  This is publicly archived.  If you do 
not want your mail message on a publicly archived list, then...
2.)  Alternative:  dimitris@ontologicon.com, dom@w3.org

Thanks in advance for your help.  We will collate the results and 
distribute them to participants.
### end ###

Regards,
-Lofton.

At 03:15 PM 8/25/02 +0300, Dimitris Dimitriadis wrote:
>[...]
>The QA WG has repeatedly discussed the current practices and use of 
>structured/granular grammars (such as XML Schema/DTD or XHTML using a 
>div/class mechanism to provide references and structure) in authoring W3C 
>specifications. The discussion has mainly been about:
>         - The possibility of using structured grammars to represent, more 
> clearly than done today, what the specification actually specifies
>         - The possibility to use common (sub)sets in order to streamline 
> W3C specification authoring
>         - The possibility to extract relevant information from the 
> specification itself, minimizing the need to interpret the text
>
>You can find further information on the rationale behind these thought in 
>(@DD: forgotten link, on vacation on a very sloppy phone line, so cannot 
>find pointer to relevant doc. Please assist).
>
>The results of this "voting" will be published to the participants, the QA 
>WG editor responsible for the topic, and the W3C chairs.
>
>It is estimated that the procedure takes no longer than 5 minutes to 
>conclude, and we would like to urge participants to fill it in, as it will 
>greatly enhance the accuracy of the voting as well as provide necessary 
>information needed to evaluate current practices and needs within the W3C. 
>Please mark the answer which best fits your WG, and give a text 
>description where needed.
>
>
>1. In authoring your specifications, do you use (1 choice) as format for 
>_authoring_ (not publishing):
>[] XML Spec or variety thereof
>[] XHTML
>[] HTML
>[] (X)HTML + div using classes to identify particular content and structure
>
>2. If you're not using XML Spec, are you using any other grammar or agreed 
>on content strucure? If so, please indicate which.
>[] Yes (please indicate)
>[] No, but group has considered it
>[] No
>
>
>3. If you're using XML Spec, is it the current one, or a modified version?
>[] Plain
>[] Modified
>
>If modified, please indicate the nature and rationale of the change. []
>
>4. How do you produce your published specifications?
>[] Lead editor assembles document editor parts from the editors, producing 
>a master document
>[] Submit parts of document, producing the master document via script or 
>similar solution
>[] Other (please indicate) []
>
>5. How big a part of the editor's workload is it to stay close to a 
>particular markup, if used, during the ongoing effort?
>[] Less than 5%
>[] 5-10%
>[] 10-20%
>[] More than 20%
>[] Please indicate the amount of hours it takes to overcome the startup 
>phase, ie. how long it (generally) takes for editors to start using the 
>content structured agreed on by the WG (hours).
>

Received on Monday, 2 September 2002 14:15:20 UTC