QA Spec Guidelines and Modular Technologies

Hi,

I have made the review of CSS3-UI, which is a modular spec. The 
technology becomes more and more modular with time. It has an influence 
on the way WGs organize their Spec editing. We have moved from a 
monolithic spec to a multiple document spec. The last big monolithic 
spec have been SMIL and SVG, even if organized in modules.

Often in this reorganization, you have a master document which defines 
conformance, usage scenarios, etc. and the modules attached to it.

For example CSS has moved from a 1-spec (css1 and css2) to a multi-spec 
(css3).

This way of writing specifications raises a very important questions on 
the notion of 1 Recommendation = 1 Technology. It's not anymore the 
case.

1. Should a technology be considered complete when all the bricks are 
ready. So is there a missing concept inside W3C which defines this set 
of bricks?
2. Should a WD (which is a module of this set) be authorized to reach 
the status of Rec (and even Last Call without the other bricks)?

	2.1 If a module can become a Rec without other elements of the set
		- How do we define depencies?
		- How do we create usage scenarios?
		etc
	
		AND more important ***How do we apply QA Spec Guidelines?***
		There's a big issue here. We can't for example find the
		 conformance section because sometimes it's in a
		document which is not written yet.

	2.2 If we think that a module can NOT become a Rec without others 
elements of the set.
		- How do we create the mechanism in the process document that specify 
this.
		- We have to check that QA Spec Guidelines is working well with 
modular docs
		Notion of table of contents, references, etc.

Should this be discussed to the chairs mailing-list?


--
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager
*** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Tuesday, 12 August 2003 19:14:46 UTC