- From: <scott_boag@us.ibm.com>
- Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 10:47:09 -0400
- To: Philip Wadler <wadler@research.avayalabs.com>
- Cc: spec-prod@w3.org, spec-prod-request@w3.org, w3c-query-editors@w3.org, www-qa@w3.org
Philip Wadler <wadler@research.avayalabs.com> wrote:
> Can you explain what you mean by "testable assertion"?
I think the following, from the recent XQuery draft, is a "testable
assertion":
A variable evaluates to the value to which the variable's QName is bound
in the evaluation context.
I think the following is NOT a testable assertion:
Each input document, and each node or node hierarchy constructed during
expression processing, is a separate data model fragment.
...so I'm making this up as I go along. It's probably a judgement call for
each sentence. I'm not sure how much of this can be done after the fact
(of writing), or how much really has to be done as part of the writing
process. Probably a little bit of both.
> Can you relate your proposal to the XQuery formal semantics?
>
> It seems to me that many of the issues being raised ("you want a
> specification, not just a vague collection of words") are also
> addressed by formal semantics. (See quote in sig below.)
You make a good point. I'm not sure. My impression was that the formal
semantics document just described a part of XQuery, not the whole of it. I
would think that the Formal Semantics would be not much different from the
other docs, except the job might be easier with it?
-scott
Philip Wadler
<wadler@research.ava To: scott_boag@us.ibm.com
yalabs.com> cc: spec-prod@w3.org, w3c-query-editors@w3.org, www-qa@w3.org
Sent by: Subject: Re: Testable assertion tagging for W3C specifications
spec-prod-request@w3
.org
05/06/2002 05:18 PM
Scott,
Can you explain what you mean by "testable assertion"?
Can you relate your proposal to the XQuery formal semantics?
It seems to me that many of the issues being raised ("you want a
specification, not just a vague collection of words") are also
addressed by formal semantics. (See quote in sig below.)
Cheers, -- P
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"When a Mathematical Reasoning can be had it's as great a folly to make
use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark, when you have a
Candle standing by you." -- John Arbuthnot, 1692
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Received on Tuesday, 7 May 2002 10:55:38 UTC