about A.1 and C.2

I had an action item to revive an issue which is #7 in the new issues list [0].

I don't really have anything new to add to the discussion the last time 
this was argued, in [1].  So mostly I'll summarize those arguments.  The 
text of SpecLite was changed in 2ndPWD [2], despite the fact that there was 
never any QAWG consensus on the debated points of [1].

CR text of SpecGL [4] contained two checkpoints about normative content and 
language:

Checkpoint 7.1. Use conformance key words.
Checkpoint 7.2. Distinguish normative and informative content.

Roughly speaking, these deal respectively with "micro level" and "macro 
level" of expressing and identifying normative content.

7.1 is the micro level -- the language used for expression of individual 
conformance requirements.  7.1 was one of the most debated issues of SpecGL 
LC-to-CR transition -- we even had a teleconference to which we invited Ian 
Jacobs to express his opinion.

7.2 is the macro level -- overall, identify what parts of the specification 
are normative and what parts are informative.

CR SpecGL required that both of these be addressed in the conformance 
clause, because all important conformance-related information should be 
findable starting there.

FPWD of SpecGL [3] preserved both of these checkpoints.  7.2 became the 3rd 
Good Practice of section A.1 (provide a Conformance Clause).  It was to be 
repeated in C.2, or referenced from there.  The reason that it was in 
section A is that we decided to "front load" the most important PRs and GPs 
-- put them in the beginning so that major benefit could be obtained by 
doing the first bits.

The current WG draft has ...




[0] http://www.w3.org/QA/WG/2004/09/qaspec-issues
[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-qa-wg/2004Aug/0090.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-qaframe-spec-20040602/
[4] 
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/CR-qaframe-spec-20031110/guidelines-chapter#Gd-support-conventions

Received on Thursday, 28 October 2004 13:22:02 UTC