RE: XML 1.0 Conformance Test Results

[Michael Rys <mrys@microsoft.com>]

A specification normally has a formal foundation that covers the
semantics much more than a test suite. Thus, defining the final
recommendation as a sequence of tests would be a really bad idea.
However, it would be a good idea to require that the implementations
presented as proofs to go to proposed recommendation go through a test
suite to show the requirements to go out of the candidate recommendation
phase...

Best regards
Michael (speaking for myself)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gary Stephenson [mailto:garys@ihug.com.au] 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2001 3:28 AM
> To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: Re: XML 1.0 Conformance Test Results
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Francis Norton" <francis@redrice.com>
> 
> > [2] Specs precede implementation better than test packs do - it is 
> > easier to define a complete spec than it is to define a 
> complete test 
> > suite, and many test questions cannot reasonably be 
> anticipated unless 
> > you make assumptions about how the application will be implemented.
> 
> 
> "Completeness", as Goedel informed us, is an impossible goal. 
>  (We might navigate by the stars without actually hoping to 
> reach them.)
> 
> Certainly the spec has to precede the test suite - but given 
> that there is a well-defined process that a spec has to be 
> frog-marched through to reach "Recommendation" status, why 
> could it not reasonably be expected that the final 
> recommendation should be expressed as a sequence of 
> executable tests in some agreed upon language (presumably 
> Java at this stage).  If, as I am led to believe, a spec can 
> not actually attain W3C recommendation status unless and 
> until it has actually been implemented, then that should 
> mandate that there be a valid test suite to determine whether 
> it truly _has_ been implemented or not.
> 
> my  $A0.014  (and falling)
> 
> gary
> 
> 
> 
> >
> 
> 
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