Re: [SVGMobile12] SVGT12-207: SVG Tiny 1.2 does not comply to AWWW

Hello www-svg,

I'm going to have another go to explain why the comment about
orthogonality and AWWW is misplaced.

Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Jun 2006, Chris Lilley wrote:
>>
>> Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
>> > The belief asserted in this statement:
>> > 
>> > # It is believed that this specification is in accordance with the Web 
>> > # Architecture principles as described in Web Architecture [AWWW]. 
>> > 
>> > ...is false. AWWW requires that specifications be orthogonal, but the 
>> > presence of incompatible versions of XML Events, DOM Core, and SMIL 
>> > features, as well as the introduction of wholly redundant features such as 
>> > <textArea>, clearly shows that SVG 1.2 does not fulfill this requirement.
>> > 
>> > Please remove this false assertion.
>> 
>> Thanks for your comment. Other people have given us more specific 
>> feedback about incompatibilities with other specs, and we have resolved 
>> them.
> 
> Unless you have removed the profiling of DOM Core, stopped using a subset 
> of SMIL features, and removed all the wholly redundant features such as 
> <textArea>, my opinion is still that the aforementioned requirement is not 
> fulfilled.

Section 5.1 of Webarch discussions orthogonality of abstractions or
concepts, not functionalities that appear in multiple specifications.

Furthermore, the functionalities cited are not equivalent in the
specifications cited.

The original comment was about an *incompatible* subset of DOM 3
Core, not the fact of a subset. The incompatibilities were found and
fixed, thus making it a compatible subset.

The 'subset of SMIL features' as a criticism is also incorrect, because
SMIL is a modular specification. It also defines rules for a host
language. SVG Tiny 1.2 is a host language for SMIL; it uses the
Animation and Timing modules. Thus, it is correct to say that it hosts a
subset; but the SMIL specification licenses that.

This leaves us with "wholly redundant features". Now, many different
specifications have elements that contain text: Timed Text, MathML,
DocBook, all TEI flavors, DITA, XLIFF, etc. These features have
something in common, yes, but it is incorrect to say that they are
identical or that they are wholly redundant; in the same way that one
would not say that h1, h2, h3, p, blockquote and div are 'wholly
redundant' elements that should all be replaced by, say, div.


-- 
 Chris Lilley                    mailto:chris@w3.org
 Interaction Domain Leader
 Co-Chair, W3C SVG Working Group
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead
 Co-Chair, W3C Hypertext CG

Received on Thursday, 10 August 2006 06:53:08 UTC