Re: [oic] "Test Suite": A Rose by Any Other Name ...

[Andreas J Guelzow <aguelzow@math.concordia.ab.ca>]

On Thu, 2008-11-13 at 16:48 -0800, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> I've been training myself not to use test and test suite when speaking
> about what we are producing as the work of the ODF Interoperability
> and Conformance TC.  My purpose is to avoid any suggestion of
> comparison, assessment, acceptance mechanisms, and the use of text
> fixtures and evaluative suites of some sort.

Wow, and I thought the whole point was to _compare_ how various
processors handle the standard and to _assess_ the level of conformance.
> 
> There are multiple reasons for this, in part because what we are
> addressing is far removed from what the particular manifestation might
> be in a viewer and especially in a processor.
> 
> So far, my favorite expression is feature-confirmation documents,
> feature-confirmation exercises, and feature-confirmation
> demonstrations. 

Nice terms, but of course I have no idea what those terms are in fact
supposed to mean. Of course I don't know whose features you are talking
about. I would assume that these are document features embodied in ODF.
But of course then there is little point of confirming that those
features in fact exist.

>  I'm very big on confirmation tests (but am training myself to avoid
> test in that case and say confirmation case).  My inclination is to
> speak of feature-confirmation cases and interoperability-confirmation
> cases. 

> 
> Have others found it useful to defang "test" 

What is wrong with the terms "test" and "assessment""

> and, if so, what sort of expressions are used to avoid the popular
> confusion around tests and suites and provides something perhaps
> different if not more precise?

What are these "popular confusions" you are talking about?


Andreas

> 
> I suppose this would be a good thing to address on the Wiki, and in
> the TC FAQ at some point.

> 
> Right now, I am still thinking out loud.  It seemed like a good time
> to check with the TC for the ideas that others have about this.
> 
> 
>  - Dennis
> 
> Dennis E. Hamilton
> ------------------
> NuovoDoc: Design for Document System Interoperability 
> mailto:Dennis.Hamilton@acm.org | gsm:+1-206.779.9430 
> http://NuovoDoc.com http://ODMA.info/dev/ http://nfoWorks.org 
> 
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mail list, you must leave the OASIS TC that
> generates this mail.  Follow this link to all your TCs in OASIS at:
> https://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/portal/my_workgroups.php 

-- 
"Liberty consists less in acting according to
one's own pleasure, than in not being subject 
to the will and pleasure of other people. It 
consists also in our not subjecting the wills 
of other people to our own."  Rousseau


Prof. Dr. Andreas J. Guelzow
Dept. of Mathematical & Computing Sciences
Concordia University College of Alberta