Towards a single mandatory normative format

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

[Bill observes that some of my comments on the ASIS document are
outside the scope of that document. I'm not really sure where comments
on the TC Process Document would most usefully be sent, so I'm
starting here. But in a separate thread.]

The TC Process document, in Section 2.18 Specification Quality,
mandates that

    All TC-approved versions of documents ... must be submitted to the
    TC's document repository in the editable source, HTML, and PDF
    formats.

However, it fails to assert which of these formats is considered
normative. I think it is absolutely essential that the process
document clearly identify exactly one normative format.

Any other state of affairs will lead to irresolvable conflicts in the
future. (A TC will produce its work then disband. Three years later,
Hugecorp and Megabiz will discover that their software isn't
interoperable because the HTML and PDF forms are different. There will
be no recourse to resolve this error.)

It remains my opinion that OASIS should standardize on XHTML as the
normative form for prose specifications and that it ought to provide
precisely the markup to be used for the beginning of the document that
includes all the metadata. This can then be checked by machine before
publication of OASIS Standards. Getting all the metadata right is
simply the kind of boring, detail-oriented work that human beings are
just not cut out to perform. Even diligent and consciencious editors
will not get it right.

If the authors of the process are unwilling to mandate a single,
distinguished format for use in normative specifications, I remain
steadfast in my belief that the process should require TCs to clearly
identify exactly one format as the normative format.

The process document goes on to say:

    All schema and XML instances, whether by inclusion or by
    reference, including fragments of such, must be well formed.

I'm not sure why schema is called out especially, but I feel I must
point out that if this directive is taken literally, it means that no
TC can publish an example of a document that is not well-formed. Nor
can a TC publish an example that includes a section of a complex XML
document without including all of the wrappers necessary to make the
example well-formed.

Further, it states:

    All expressions must be valid.

What's an expression and what does it mean for an expression to be
valid? "Expression" is not among the terms defined in section 1.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM / XML Standards Architect / Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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