[xslt-conformance] Re: Document for processor developers -- first draft

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

At 01/10/08 22:53 -0400, David_Marston@lotus.com wrote:
>The following would serve as the introduction to the questionnaire
>on discretionary items. This is our one document aimed at the XSLT
>processor developers, though we encourage them to read the rest.
>
>===== START =====
>The XSLT and XPath Recommendations were written in hopes that XML
>data could be transformed as needed by the products of many vendors.
>Builders of Web sites should be able to use tools to create XSLT
>stylesheets regardless of the XSLT processor that will ultimately
>execute the styling. The OASIS XSLT/XPath test suite is the most
>comprehensive measure of the necessary interoperability.

I'm not sure what you mean here by "necessary".

>As a developer trying to meet the W3C Recommendations, you know how
>the verbiage of the Recommendations contains precisely-stated
>provisions that interlock in complex and sometimes surprising ways.
>There are also cases where you have leeway to choose one of two
>allowable behaviors or decide output details. Below is our
>questionnaire about the choices. We want you to specify the choices
>you made when creating your XSLT processor. You are encouraged to
>post the answers on your own Web site as well as sending them to us.
>When you prepare to use our test suite, an XML document containing
>your answers is used to filter out test cases that assume the other
>choice,

"choices".

>  leaving a rendition that is custom-fit to your processor
>insofar as allowed by the Recommendations.
>
>Conformance to the Recommendations is tested by running thousands
>of small test cases, each with processor inputs and an expected
>output. Comparison of actual and expected output neutralizes all
>details that have been defined as irrelevant by the XML, InfoSet,

It isn't the official InfoSet spec, but "an information set of the document".

>Namespaces, and XSLT Recommendations. There is no reason to think
>that all tests have equal weight, hence we discourage talk of
>percentages of conformance and the like. If you have some tests
>that you would like to be included in a later edition of our
>suite, see [URL] for submission instructions.

Looks great, David!

............................. Ken

p.s. would all other contributors please report on the status of their 
contributions?


--
G. Ken Holman                      mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
Crane Softwrights Ltd.               http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/s/
Box 266, Kars, Ontario CANADA K0A-2E0     +1(613)489-0999   (Fax:-0995)
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Article: What is XSLT? http://www.xml.com/pub/2000/08/holman/index.html
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