Re: What is normative?

The issue is open in tracker so I'm taking it as open - but if we're 
taking them out (and I think we are too) then some of the intro matter 
and the template need updating.

Phil

On 18/05/2015 16:03, yaso@nic.br wrote:
> I thought we had an agreement on this:
>
> "An alternative would be not to include any RFC2119 keywords at all"
>
> I ran trough the logs and couldn't find nothing against not using the
> RFC2119 keywords at the document. Furthermore, we talked at the F2F
> about the translation to Portuguese problem with the keywords. There was
> another decision on that?
>
>
> yaso
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 05/18/2015 11:53 AM, Phil Archer wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> The BP editors have been working hard and have made a number of what I
>> think are big steps forward with the doc.
>>
>> But Issue-146 remains unresolved: what is normative in a BP?
>>
>> Take our old favourite first BP
>> http://w3c.github.io/dwbp/bp.html#ProvideMetadata that says:
>>
>> Metadata MUST be provided for both human users and computer applications
>>
>> I doubt anyone here will disagree with this statement, but is it right
>> to make this the normative part of the BP? And, if so, are we right to
>> use the RFC2119 MUST?
>>
>> Take a less clear cut example:
>> http://w3c.github.io/dwbp/bp.html#MultipleFormats that says:
>>
>> Data SHOULD be available in multiple data formats.
>>
>> Really?
>>
>> SHOULD is "comply or explain" - i.e. you'd better have a very good
>> reason not to provide data in multiple formats so I might argue one day
>> that this should be a MAY. What does MAY mean? From the infamous RFC2119:
>>
>> "This word, or the adjective "OPTIONAL", mean that an item is
>>     truly optional.  One vendor may choose to include the item because a
>>     particular marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels that
>>     it enhances the product while another vendor may omit the same item."
>>
>> (I've omitted the rest of the definition but this is the essence of it).
>>
>> Suppose the WG agrees and this BP now becomes:
>>
>> "Data MAY be available in multiple data formats."
>>
>> Which doesn't really convey in a single sentence what we mean. We might
>> end up with
>>
>> "Publishers are encouraged to make data available in multiple formats
>> (OPTIONAL)"
>>
>> i.e. re-word the normative line to fit in with the definition of the
>> relevant RFC2119 keyword.
>>
>> An alternative would be not to include any RFC2119 keywords at all. I'm
>> easy either way - I can see arguments for and against including these
>> keywords - but it remains an open issue that I think we owe it to the
>> editors to decide what to do.
>>
>> Phil.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

-- 


Phil Archer
W3C Data Activity Lead
http://www.w3.org/2013/data/

http://philarcher.org
+44 (0)7887 767755
@philarcher1

Received on Monday, 18 May 2015 15:17:46 UTC