Re: How to define <elements> in specifications

Going though your list:
     There are a lot of ways of presenting the same information indeed.

     I think we should work with Susan Lesch, if she's ok, to propose  
addendum to the [manual of style][1] on the way to present  
information for each specification. Then with a kind of analysis  
grid, we could try to encourage  WGs to modify their markup.

It could have benefits if tools make the life easier too. :)
     * Automatic creation of glossary
     * Automatic creation of indexes
     * Automatic creation of examples
     * Automatic creation of schema?
     * Testable assertion list requirements
     * Automatic nice layout with a predefined "Manual of Style" CSS.  
(as in don't bother with it, if you do this markup, it will be like  
that)


[1]: http://www.w3.org/2001/06/manual/


My comments are on the fly and not necessary always insightful, it's  
more a quick impression. Hope it helps to start


Le 05-07-18 à 18:46, Bjoern Hoehrmann a écrit :
>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-SVG11-20030114/ 
> struct.html#SVGElement

Bad:
     * Presentation too technical.

Good:
     I would say that a specific page with the full schema and links  
as in that one would be good, but not as the main entry point to  
understand the feature.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xhtml-modularization-20010410/ 
> abstract_modules.html#s_imagemodule

Good:
     * The table model used here is clear to understand the genealogy  
and the type.
           Element name  |  Attributes and their types | minimal  
content model

Bad:
     * List of attributes is difficult to parse automatically,  
without having a well defined regex and then prone to errors for  
automatic processing.
     * Semantics poorly defined or inexistant (even by reference to  
another document)
     * No examples
     * No implementations requirements if any

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-sXBL-20050405/#the-definition

Good:
     * systematic in the presentation
     * easy to read

Bad:
     * Schema in first place is not very helpful, if helpful at all.  
The spec is here to understand the features, not to learn how to read  
a schema file. Specifically when you come from somewhere else in the  
document, you would like first to see the definition and understand  
how to use/implement it.
     * lacking of examples


>   * http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-ietf-atompub-format/

Bad:
     * Give me a link to an element… How much I respect the work of  
IETF, the way the spec are defined is really not usable and all the  
converter I have seen so far don't do a good job. :(((

Good:
     Text version is useful to cut and paste in a mail but that  
should be proposed in an alternate format, not the main format of the  
document.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xmldsig-core-20020212/#sec- 
> CanonicalizationMethod

Good:
     * Lot of information

Bad:
     * Lot of information

I'm pretty sur all you need is here, but it's almost impossible to  
have a quick access to the information and to be able to understand  
the main elements of each feature. There's really a layout issue here.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116#section-Defining- 
> Template-Rules

Good:
     * quite clear.
     * practical example

Bad:
     * Model first.
     * difficult to know if it's an example or a the model
     * it could have more layout for errors and such things. :)

>   * http://relaxng.org/spec-20011203.html#full-syntax

Good:
     * We know what we are talking about at the first sentence.

Bad:
     * the definition of features later on is lost in a prose without  
clear layout


>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028/#element- 
> attribute

Good:
     * All in one specification:  everything accessible ;)

Bad:
     * All in one specification: very heavy to download ;)
     * Same comment as usual, we start by the technical definition  
more than the usage.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-wsdl20-20050510/#Interface_XMLRep

Good:
     * Infoset

Bad:
     * Going through the reading, I still don't know what the element  
is about.
     * Infoset
     * Too many links

I'm not sure the Infoset is necessary always a good way to describe  
the information or maybe not at least as a first entrance to the  
information. I have no strong opinion about that.

>   * http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss#hrelementsOfLtitemgt

Good:
     * The fact to be able to bookmark the element (permalink)
     * direct access to what is the purpose of the element
     * giving the list of children and their meaning

Bad:
     * The permalink is a useless information, but due to User agents  
bad implementations for references.
     * No access to a formal language definition (schema, DTD, etc)
     * conformance requirements sometimes not clear
     * I would the link on the element name itself to have more  
information and not on "More"

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/ 
> global.html#h-7.5.4

Good:
     * definition
     * example
     * presentation of attributes easy to process
     * implementation requirements

Bad:
     * schema first


>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-P3P11-20050701/#ENTITY

Good:
     * Definition first
     * schema at the end.

Bad:
     * I think that the "ENTITY element gives a precise description  
of the legal entity making the representation of the privacy  
practices." which is repeated almost three times in a row ;)
     * lacking example.


>   * http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2629.txt

     Look above for Atom

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-xkms2-20050628/#XKMS_2_0_Section_7_2

Bad:
     * I still don't know what the element is about
     * I don't think it's good to put angle brackets around element  
in the prose.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-scxml-20050705/#N103B4

Bad:
     * I don't know what the element is about

Good:
     * conformance requirements seem good.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-soap12-part1-20030624/ 
> #faultdetailelement

Good:
     * very clear conformance requirements
     * good definition

Bad:
     * Lacking example to really understand it

>   * http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/12572/ 
> OpenDocument-v1.0-os.pdf

Bad:
     * PDF
     * Schema to define the elements in the prose.
     * not many examples


>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20050107/smil- 
> timing.html#Timing-SeqSyntax

Good:
     * I know it's normative right away
     * there's a clear and short definition

Bad:
     * I almost missed the end of the definition with excl starting.  
It's difficult to see the transition
     * not clear what are the attributes
     * lacking examples
     * Here diagrams could be useful to explain how it's working


>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-MathML2-20031021/ 
> chapter3.html#presm.mi

Good:
     * Well not bad at all. It's clear, it flows, there are examples.

Bad:
     * Maybe the conformance requirements are not explicit enough

>   * https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/ 
> protocol.html#xmlTagDefinitions

Bad:
     * good for a cheatsheet, not for a specification.

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-SVGMobile12-20050413/ 
> struct.html#SVGElement

For now, it's one of my favourite spec for the layout, except about  
the schema and technical definition first.
I would do the opposite.
Usage, Examples, and formal description after.
I really like the presentation for examples and schema. Conformance  
requirements are clear.


>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xsl-20011015/slice6.html#fo_inline

Good:
     * information layout, systematic, description, etc.
     * conformance requirements
     * Incoming references for properties

Bad:
     * Lack of examples

>   * http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3920.txt

Same comment

>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-emma-20041214/#s3.1.3

Good:
     * Clear presentation

Bad:
     * Not sure to understand the role
     * example has no explaining context.
     * attributes not defined by reference. What is an XSD:id  
attribute if I'm a newbie.


>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-xforms-20031014/slice8.html#ui- 
> secret

Good:
     * informative
     * definition
     * example
     * requirements are given

Bad:
     * Layout special attributes, it gives the feeling of a new  
section starting



>   * http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-InkML-20040928/#inkElement


Bad:
     * angle bracket
     * maybe lack of context usage

Good:
     * clear layout

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

Received on Tuesday, 19 July 2005 21:00:01 UTC