RE: [dita] Can conventions for human understanding be MUST requirements?

["Ogden, Jeff" <jogden@ptc.com>]

Human understanding is only one of the things that the coding conventions promote.  They also promote interoperability--that is they allow the reuse and exchange of structural specializations, domain specializations, domain attribute specializations, constraints, and document type shells between different individuals, organizations, and software implementations with a high expectation that they will "just work" or work with very little reimplementation and customization.

So I think it is fair that the coding conventions be MUST requirements.  

You can of course argue that any particular requirement or convention isn't justified, but that is a different question.

   -Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dana Spradley [mailto:dana.spradley@oracle.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 4:25 PM
> To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [dita] Can conventions for human understanding be MUST
> requirements?
> 
> Looking over Don's notes from today's meeting, I paused over the
> following:
> 
> >Discussion of Conformance section.
> >Sue-Laine asked for clarification of the goals. Dana asked about Must
> >requirements; Eliot: issue is processor requirements vs coding (data)
> >requirements (conventions for human  understanding as well as machine
> >interoperability).
> 
> If our coding standards are only intended to promote human
> understanding - and aren't sufficient to automate the interchange of
> new DTD/XSD modules - can they really be "must" requirements?
> 
> I don't think so...
> 
> Basically: if by following them in a fashion that DTD/XSD editors could
> automate, you can't ensure "plug and play" interoperability between
> DITA installations and across different vendors' DITA implementations -
> then they are "may" standards at best - or merely best practices that
> the TC itself follows in the DTDs and XSDs we release.
> 
> Perhaps that is why they were originally called "design patterns," not
> "coding standards."
> 
> --Dana
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dond@us.ibm.com [mailto:dond@us.ibm.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 9:28 AM
> To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [dita] Groups - OASIS DITA TC Meeting modified
> 
> Minutes embedded in today's meeting notice. Will upload separately as
> 13January2010Minutes.txt.
> 
>  -- Don Day
> 
> 
> OASIS DITA TC Meeting has been modified by Don Day
> 
> Date:  Tuesday, 12 January 2010
> Time:  08:00am - 09:00am PT
> 
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> Agenda:
> Agenda for 13 January 2010 DITA TC Meeting/Call
> 
> See the DITA TC Wiki: http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/FrontPage
> 
> Minutes:
> Minutes for 13 January 2010 DITA TC Meeting/Call
> 
> 8:00-8:05 Roll call
> 
> Solicit volunteer to take minutes
> >Don (note that actions are bracketed for visibility)
> 
> Approve minutes from previous business meetings:
> >Skipped, no minutes available from Jan 5
> 
> Subcommittee/liaison reports (as needed)
>     * OASIS DITA Adoption TC (Gershon)
> >Skipped for focus on review
> 
> Business:
>    1. ITEM: DITA 1.2 specification
>           * Business (edited by Eberlein, 5 and 12 January 2010 for 12
> January TC meeting):
>                1. Status of 3rd review:
> >Kristen: Reviewers, please update statuses.
>                2. Opening of review for the "Subject scheme map" topic:
> SubjectSchemeMap3: Wiki page
> >Kristen noted guidelines for reviewers. Kristen will send out an email
> >announcing formal update of this review. JoAnn: reviewers, please add
> >substantive, researched text if at all possible. Kris suggested
> >designating EH and RDA as primary reviewers. JoAnn felt Taxonomy
> should
> >be in another topic, Kristen noted they'll look at recommendations for
> that. JoAnn asked if a relationship table should be in a subject scheme
> map.
> >[Action: Kristen will add links to review page for the subject scheme
> >topic for the proposed email to the list.] Robert volunteered to
> >review, and will involve Erik as necessary. Bruce Nevin volunteered
> 
>                3. Issue identified in review #3: Redundant topics
> >Gershon led this portion of discussion. Note the author's table--now
> >the current focus of activity. Authors, please send dates of
> completion to Gershon and Kristen.
> >Kristen: MP noted that the introduction sections overlap other
> conceptual topics in other parts of the spec.
> >She will send revision suggestions to the list.
> >Gershon walked through the rest of the table to clarify actions with
> authors.
> >Gershon requested someone to take on the Base DITA Processing items
> >particularly. He will own the full section (135+ comments to date).
> > Eliot to let Gershon and Kristen know if reorganization of his
> section
> >is needed yet. Will coordinate with  Jeff, MP as necessary.
> > Robert reported that John Hunt in on progress for all inputs this
> week. Robert also on goal for this week.
> >[Action: Gershon to send an email to John Hunt to confirm when he will
> >be able to complete those inputs.]  Discussion of Conformance section.
> >Sue-Laine asked for clarification of the goals. Dana asked about Must
> >requirements; Eliot: issue is processor requirements vs coding (data)
> >requirements (conventions for human  understanding as well as machine
> >interoperability).  Eliot: element matching vs class matching impacts
> guaranteed conformance, for example. Where the spec says Must,
> applications must conform. Dana requests that  interoperability notions
> be spelled out as specifically as possible. Kristen: how to move
> forward? Sue-Laine:
> > more eyes on it to ensure it is meeting needs (KE will volunteer; SY
> will ask her partners to look as well).
> >[Action: Sue-Laine to contact Eliot for clarifications.]  Eliot
> >suggested that it can be abbreviated while still making some strong
> >assertions about compliant DITA  expectations. Jeff requested release
> >from ownership of where the rewrite may go. Kristen recognized Jeff's
> contributions to this conformance statement thus far for the record.
> >Appendices: no current owner. Eliot will be responsible for interop
> and
> >1.1 to 1.2 migration guide.  Robert has updated the element by element
> topic--it is done for 1.2.
> >Gershon and Kristen will send new dates after taking inputs this week.
>                4. Status of authors' work handling review #3 comments:
> url
>                5. Revise schedule to accommodate the following items:
>                6. Status: PDF output of the DITA 1.2 spec (Kimber)
>                7. Heads-up about future changes
>                8. Low(er) priority items:
>    2. ITEM: Metadata Elements
> >Completed last week
>    3. ITEM: Foreign element description
> >Completed last week
>    4. New ITEMS: (if not covered in review items for #1,above)
>           * DITA 1.2 Conformance
> >Discussed above
>           * Conditional processing
> >Comments already in wiki
>           * Filtering logic for  element
> >Sue-Laine notes that wording to date is now or soon to be on the wiki.
> >Gershon: keep filtering discussion on the list, and resolve to the
> wiki
> >if possible. If the list discussion remains open next week, then we
> can keep this item on the agenda.
>    5. New ITEM: PDF Generation for Spec Draft
>           * http://lists.oasis-
> open.org/archives/dita/201001/msg00074.html (Kimber, Self, Joseph, and
> others)
>           * Discuss any further customizations; need volunteer to set
> up wiki page for process documentation
> >Don acknowledged work by Robert and Kristen as well, and thanked the
> >preparers for helping on the production quality issues. Please help
> Eliot with his tweaking questions on the list as this new plugin gets
> tested.
> 
> 8:55 Adjourn
> 
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