RFC 2119 keywords, prose, and Conformance Re: experience generating EARL for GRDDL test results

Hi,
(feel free to drop names and lists if you think the audience is too  
wide)

RFC 2119 and Conformance is a whole another topic… which has created  
discussions in the belated QA WG.

Le 16 janv. 2007 à 03:49, Dan Connolly a écrit :
> Looking at [1], I see
>   "An Assertion must have at least the following properties"
> that's odd too.
>
> [[
> I think it's a misuse of RFC2119 to say things like "2 + 2 MUST be  
> 4" or "every attribute value in an XML document MUST be quoted."  
> Better to just say "2 + 2 is 4" and "every attribute value in an  
> XML document is quoted."
> ]]
>  -- "must is for agents", Dan Connolly, Jan 2001
>  http://www.w3.org/2001/01/mp23

See also
http://esw.w3.org/topic/RfcKeywords

With Danc's proposal here, let's state that we only use "RFC 2119"  
for agents. There is then a need sometimes to define in a  
specification what is an assertion and what is simple prose. The only  
way to do that is, either, having

     - separate list of testable assertion
       http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/#write-assertion-gp
       http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/#consistent-style-principle
     - a specific markup in the specification to identify what is prose

QA Specification Guidelines says:
http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/#norm-informative-gp

     "Specify in the conformance clause how to distinguish
      normative from informative content."

with the associated technique

     "3. Try to avoid language that sounds normative in an
      informative section. It might lead the readers to wrong
      assumptions."

But sometimes it is not that easy. Forbidding the use of RFC 2119  
keywords is odd too, there are just English terms.


Question:
    - Does the term "agents" include humans?



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

Received on Tuesday, 16 January 2007 05:56:01 UTC