Re: Answer to Ian Hickson: Formal vs prose language normativity

Dear Ian,

You disagreed with the way the resolution of the WG was formulated.  
We discussed it in details at our last Teleconference on Monday [1].


Le 05-05-03 à 12:34, Ian Hickson a écrit :
> On Tue, 3 May 2005, Karl Dubost wrote:
>> Original comment (issue 1049 [1])
>> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-qa/2005Jan/0014.html
>
> This is actually exactly the opposite of what my comment said. In my
> opinion, when there is a conflict it means that one or the other of  
> the
> formal language and the prose is incorrect. There is no guarentee  
> about
> which one is the correct one.
>
> Whenever there is a conflict between prose and formal language, the
> working group must, IMHO, release errata fixing the problem. Saying  
> that
> one overrides the other implies some sort of belief that errors  
> will only
> creep into one and not the other, which is clearly not going to be the
> case. It also means that people will be discourages from reporting  
> errors
> to the editors since errors would always be "resolved" (albeit  
> effectively
> without working group supervision).
>
> I do not accept this resolution.

We do not necessary fully agree with your comments but we do  
understand your concerns. We came with the conclusion that it would  
be bad for developers if they can't move forward so we decided to  
keep our stance on having a rule to move forward in case of conflicts.

BUT we will add the prose of Al Gilman to the text and we will make  
extra warnings.
If a conflict is identified in a specification, the WG ***has to  
publish*** an errata and we will emphasize that by a link to the  
Process Documents which has already such a request.

The answer is made in practical way to avoid blocking situation where  
nothing can be done.

The Full discussion is in the minutes [1], label "ISSUE 1049"

[1] http://www.w3.org/mid/ 
5.1.1.5.2.20050510084627.00aa63a8@mailserver.nist.gov

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

Received on Friday, 13 May 2005 18:37:25 UTC