"Dave Pawson" <> wrote on 08/13/2008 09:30:22 AM:
>
> 2008/8/13 Patrick Durusau <>:
>
> > If a vendor is conforming to the standard and the standard says data
for a
> > chart is in a table
>
>
> I thought specifications 'required' content, not made statements of
> fact about content.
>
Conformance definitions require use of modal verbs such as shall/should,
etc. But using simple definitions and declarative statements elsewhere is
fine. If needed for conformance, you can always put an umbrella statement
elsewhere.
For example, look at XPath 2.0, which I happen to have in front of me. The
core function library is defined in a purely declarative fashion:
"Function: boolean starts-with(string, string)
The starts-with function returns true if the first argument string starts
with the second argument string, and otherwise returns false."
Where are the requirements?
But note that the core function library is introduced as "This section
describes functions that XPath implementations must always include in the
function library that is used to evaluate expressions.". That's the
language that connects it all. You do not need to say for every
functions, "The starts-with function must return true....".
Similarly, we can trap this all in the ODF 1.2 conformance definition with
umbrella language like "ODF elements and attributes which are optional
according to the Relax NG Schema, if present shall be implemented in a way
consistent with the definitions provided in this specification" or
something similar.
-Rob
