RE: [www-qa] Re: Conformance and Implementations

Mark Skall wrote: 
>Ok, let me interpret my own point.  It' really pretty simple.  All I am
>saying is that you write tests to test exactly what is required by the
>spec (that is the bible) - no more and no less. If the spec is clear,
>no interpretation is needed.  If the spec is ambiguous, someone 
>needs to interpret and change the spec to make it unambiguous.  

But you may not find out that the spec is ambiguous until after you write a particular test and then find out that a particular implementation did not share your interpretation.

>No test should be used until the spec (or some other normative
>reference like an errata) is changed to remove the ambiguity.  

I would agree that no test should be ratified as part of a conformance suite until the ambiguity is removed, but running the test would be very useful to determine what implementations agreed (or were
at least compatible) with a particular interpretation and to provide guidance to the WG for determining the appropriate resolution.

Received on Monday, 22 October 2001 12:04:00 UTC