Re: [tag] TA Model

[stephen.green@systml.co.uk]

Quoting Dave Pawson <dave.pawson@gmail.com>:

> On 21/09/2007, stephen.green@systml.co.uk <stephen.green@systml.co.uk> wrote:
>> I don't like restricting the flow part of the model to just
>> conditions, trigger and result. I question whether there is
>> always a trigger as such (although in some test technologies
>> there might always be one, but we are to be independent of
>> that I think). I question whether there is always *only* a
>> trigger and result.
>
>
> Again it's a question of boundaries. IMHO there must be some
> action that initiates a test. Whether that is entry into the test   
> code (time )
> or an external event, there must be a trigger or the test won't run.
>
> Without  a test result the test is a waste of time. It may be an interim
> result eventually discarded, but there needs to be a result.
>


So following this through, if the result is a mandatory element
of the flow but the other elements (I use the term element not
necessarily in the XML sense) are all optional, then a flow can
at its simplest be just a formalization (perhaps in an expression
language evaluating to a boolean) of the prose or pointer

-TA
--prose
--pointer
--flow
---result

The more complex flow would cover joining flows together with in
a series say where conditions guard the join between a result and
the next trigger

-TA
--prose
--pointer
--flow
---trigger
---result
---post
--flow
---pre
---trigger
---result

>
>> Perhaps an attribute in each element
>
> I've not seen any evidence that XML is helpful here.
>

I was thinking there could be something in the model which
describes the evaluation of the expression used (irrespective
of whether it is XML), like:

-TA
--prose isTrueFalse=true
--pointer isTrueFalse=false
--flow
---result isTrueFalse=true

If the value is 'isTrueFalse=false' then MUST, etc might be included

so it could contain (for the sake of the pointer/ref mainly) something
like
"the root element of the document MUST be 'Invoice'"

I still think any constraints forbidding keywords 'MUST' are best applied
just to the flow, not to the prose and certainly (of necessity) not to
the pointer/reference.



-Stephen Green

Partner
SystML, http://www.systml.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 117 9541606

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+22:37 .. and voice