Re: [oiic-formation-discuss] Acid Tests

["Sam Johnston" <samj@samj.net>]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 4:42 PM, Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com> wrote:

Foul. That means my mate Steve can't run it 'easily'. He's a casual
observer. He's blind.
No go Sam.

Presumably Steve would want such a dogs' breakfast to 'render' well in his screen reader/braille pad then? Perhaps in this case the 'acid test' would be more useful to him than other methods. In any case dropping visual is fine by me.

"An acid test runs a comprehensive test of an ODF instance
and generates the results  in a manner that makes failures
 obvious to the tester."

Remembering 'acids turn neutral litmus paper red and bases turn it blue' - it's green or red light, happy face or roadkill... here's how the Acid2 guys explain it:

Acid2 is a test page for web browsers published by The Web Standards Project (WaSP). It has been written to help browser vendors make sure their products correctly support features that web designers would like to use. These features are part of existing standards but haven't been interoperably supported by major browsers. Acid2 tries to change this by challenging browsers to render Acid2 correctly before shipping.

Acid2 is a complex web page. It uses features that are not in common use yet, because of lack of support, and it crams many tests into one page. The aim has been to make it simple for developers and users to check if a browser passes the test. If it does, the smiley face on the left will appear. If something is wrong, the face will be distorted and/or shown partly in red.

This could be translated as:

[ODF Acid] is a test [document] for [ODF applications] published by [OASIS]. It has been written to help [ODF implementors] make sure their products correctly support features that [document editors] would like to use. These features are part of existing standards but haven't been interoperably supported by major [ODF applications]. [ODF Acid] tries to change this by challenging [ODF applications] to render [ODF Acid] correctly before shipping.

[ODF Acid] is a complex [document]. It uses features that are not in common use yet, because of lack of support, and it crams many tests into one page. The aim has been to make it simple for [editors] and users to check if a[n application] passes the test. If it does, the [layout] will match [this reference]. If something is wrong, the [layout] will be distorted.

So back to the compact definition, and moving away from a failure focus:

An Acid Test is a complex document that uses commonly demanded features, rendering results such that it simple for users to check if an application passes the test.

I'm currently of the opinion that there will need to be too much manual intervention in any compliance test with ODF as it stands for an 'acid test' suite to be of interest to the casual user.

This is yet to be seen, though without a reference implementation it could well be quite challenging to develop both the document and the reference directly from the spec (or indeed even to verify conformance to the spec).

Sam