Re: Validity as a technique

Hi John,

John M Slatin wrote:
> ...
> 
> The definition of "programmatically determined" most recently accepted
> by the Working Group is as follows:
> <currentDefinition>
> Programmatically determined:
> Can be recognized by user agents, including assistive technologies, that
> support the technologies in the chosen baseline.
> </currentDefinition>
> 
> I hope this is somewhat less opaque.

When you combine that definition with that of the baseline at:
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/#baselinedef>
"Set of technologies assumed to be supported by, and enabled in, user 
agents in order for Web content to conform to these guidelines."

Things do not get more clear to us. Is the WG stating that if some UA 
can deal "ad infinitum" with tag-soups (and/or invalid content), then 
things can be programmatically determined, even when those less 
forgiving UAs can't? Or "user agents" means: all UAs? Could not this 
become again another kind of "Until user agents ..."?

Sorry for opening another Pandora's Box, but if we discussion is 
shifting from validity (more accurately, we shall say spec conformance) 
to the implications of programmatically determined, IMHO things are not 
getting more clear.

regards,
carlos
PS: And may God help us when we have to translate "programmatically 
determined" to other languages.
-- 
Dr Carlos A Velasco - http://access.fit.fraunhofer.de/
Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Informationstechnik FIT
   [Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (FIT)]
   Barrierefreie Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie für Alle
   Schloss Birlinghoven, D53757 Sankt Augustin (Germany)
   Tel: +49-2241-142609 Fax: +49-2241-1442609

Received on Tuesday, 8 November 2005 08:19:48 UTC