SpecGL: rewrite of Strict Conformance

Below completes my action item to review Guideline 3 and 9 with respect to 
Strict Conformance and to proposed modifications.

For Guideline 3. Specify conformance policy

1.  Modify 1st paragraph, (changes start with the second sentence)
A look at various W3C Technical reports shows that the term "conformance" 
is often qualified, resulting in more than one type of conformance.  It is 
important to convey an understanding of what is meant by conformance and 
how it applies to each class of product as well as each dimension of 
variability (e.g., modules) if applicable. For example, if the 
specification defines behavior for more than one class of product, there 
may be a separate conformance policy for each class.  Similarly, if the 
specification defines modules, there may be a different conformance policy 
for each module.

2.  Delete the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th paragraphs.

3. The 5th paragraph  the definition of Strict conformance is moved to 
Guideline 9 (see below).

4. Leave the last 2 paragraphs (6 and 7) as is.

5.  Remove Checkpoint 3.2.  It is subsumed by ckpt 9.1.

6.  Checkpoint 3.3 should be removed

7. Ckpt 3.1  (I wasn't sure what is meant here, but with Mark's help, I 
thought that this was it)
Propose alternative wording for the fulfill criteria of Ckpt 3.1
To fulfill this checkpoint, a specification MUST include a normative 
section enumerating the minimal requirements that apply across all products 
of a class.

Rationale: the reader must be able to recognize any minimum functionality, 
complexity or support that applies to all conforming products of a specific 
class.

For Guideline 9. Extensions or NOT.

8.  Insert the following as the 3rd paragraph in Guideline 9
Disallowing extensions for any part of the specification is called strict 
conformance.  [te paragraph from G3]  Strict conformance is defined as 
conformance of an implementation that employs only the requirements and/or 
functionality defined in the specification and no more (e.g., no extensions 
to the specification are implemented).  No discretion is granted to 
implementers, and any requirements for handling deprecated features must be 
followed.

Received on Thursday, 16 January 2003 15:20:09 UTC