See also: IRC log
<scribe> ScribeNick: fantasai
Peter: Any more topics to add to agenda?
<silence>
Peter: Daniel had a conversation with Chris via email
Daniel: We sent proposed charter 10 days ago
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-css-wg/2008AprJun/0307.html
Daniel: Main concern about
charter is too-long list of deliverables.
... He's afraid W3C management will choke on this
... The new Domain Leader thinks the list is too long for the
time frame. Chris agrees.
... I said that the list was already a difficult
compromise
... And that the WG wants to preserve the ability to work on
these items
<dsinger> would it look better if we split into N working groups, each with a reasonable length list, and we all joined all the groups?
Daniel: But he doesn't think w3cm will find it acceptable.
<dsinger> :-)
Daniel: It looks like the first
set looks like it can be done
... He said we should work on an item in the second set only if
it can replace a completed item on the first set
... And that the last set is unrealistic.
... Chris said that it is a lot of work for the documents,
first. And there is a lot of work to do on the test suites as
well.
... Furthermore there are IPR issues.
... A Member joining the WG accepts patent policies wrt list of
deliverables.
... That was SteveZ's concern awhile ago
... A too-long list of deliverables is not encouraging for new
members
... The second big comment about the charter itself is the lack
of explanations for each and every module in the list of
deliverables.
... That list is very meaningful for people who know CSS and
are involved in the CSSWG.
... But it is not meaningful for w3cm and AC reps who are not
involved in CSS.
... He proposed adding for each deliverable a brief
description, its current status, status of implementations,
status of test suite
... He insisted a lot on the test suite
... We should show more and better what is our coverage of
tests for a given spec
... Finally, what are the positive things and blockers for the
spec
... What are the arguments we could give to w3cm to make them
accept such a deliverable?
... As I said wrt test suites..
... The CSS2.1 test suite says it is incomplete and contains a
lot of errors. This is something we have to fix.
... We have to make all the test suites move forward.
... I told him that writing complete tests is a huge work, and
he agreed with that.
... Since we don't have a lot of resources in the WG, Chris
suggested creating an Interest Group who could help with
reviewing of tests and running the implementation against the
test to produce implementation reports
... I objected that individuals in such a group have no legal
responsibility if they lie or don't do correct tests.
... He said no, there's a commitment when you join an interest
group and an implementation report written by someone outside
the browse vendor is as valid as one written by the browser
vendor
... Chris would like to see a new section in the new charter
that analyzes the results of the previous charter.
... What were the successes, what were the failures, what do we
need, what did we lack.
... Last point is minor, we probably need liaison with WebAPI
or whatever it's called now because of Selectors API
fantasai: We're sort of doing the Interest Group thing already, informally, on public-css-testsuite
Daniel: an Interest Group is more formal legally, and asks for more commitment
Ming: As Elika was saying, a lot
of things Chris was suggesting to do, Elika is planning to
do.
... We should look at what we're doing, e.g. wrt the review
process, and if that is not adequate we can create a group
Daniel: We should start writing test suites when we start writing the spec
Melinda: It makes more sense to start writing tests around when implementations are starting to happen
Daniel: I can see a lot of cases when a browser vendor won't say when they're starting to work on an implementation for competitive reasons
Melinda: We might not always be able to identify that point in time, but I think that's the point we're looking for.
Daniel: We should start writing tests when we feel the spec is starting to stabilize.
Elika: (earlier on) It doesn't make sense to write tests when the drafts is still in the brainstorming phase
Melinda: I don't think this group has a realistic plan for the CSS2.1 test suite
Daniel: So the charter needs more
work. We need to spend more time discussing the proposed list
of deliverables.
... I perfectly understand the rationale of a long list.
... But if the result is a rejection by w3cm, then that won't
work.
<dsinger> but we can't control what people actually spend their time on
Peter: My concern is what do you define as popping off the stack? Getting to REC? Or not having much to do on it for a few months?
Daniel: Probably the latter. The w3cm's concern is resources.
Peter: I thought that was already our intent.
howcome: I can see the rationale
for wanting to cut back because we want to finish.
... but I don't think it will make us not work on other
items
... it will only block us from working on some things
... I don't think we're going to work any faster by cutting
down the list.
Jason: I agree. I think it comes
back to prioritizing.
... We should work on the high priority items. We shouldn't
have to revise the charter to go back and work on soemthing
Daniel: The charter is supposed
to be deliverables, not a list if items we want to work
on
... If an item is on a wait list, then that item's chance for
success is already questionable.
howcome: We have different
opinions on what a charter is.
... I think a charter defines the scope of our work, and if it
it has a list of deliverables too, fine.
Daniel: I'm not saying my POV, I'm speaking for management
Steve: The charter is two things, it's what's in scope and what you commit to get done.
howcome: I think the charter should say that we want to be able to work in all these areas
Daniel: Then we put the list in an informative section listing what we might work on, and say that the charter may be extended to include these later
howcome: I think that's too much overhead
Melinda: I don't think the list of things in scope and deliverables need to be one and the same
Steve: Reviewing a one line addition to the charter is pretty quick and straightforward
howcome: I don't think it's that
we have X amount of resources that we can point at the pool of
work.
... We have different areas of interest.
Daniel: CSSWG is the only WG that
is not willing to extend the charter and work like this
... Other working groups accept to have a short list of
deliverables and extend the charter to work on other things
howcome: We split our spec up. HTML5 is one item, but it's as big as all CSS3 modules put together
Steve: CSSWG has a bad reputation
for not being able to finish anything. I'm not saying it's
deserved, but you can see which specs got to REC and ours
didn't
... Most other WGs have got RECs already
howcome: Most of which have failed
Peter: What is sounds like Chris
is askin for is take everything out of the deliverables except
the first group
... Move everything else to a separate section that says these
are in scope, but not deliverables.
Daniel: No
... We can move some items (e.g. Transformations, for which we
expect 2 implementations in 6 months) to the first group
<Bert> http://www.w3.org/Style/Group/2008/draft-charter2.html
<plinss> http://www.w3.org/Style/Group/2008/proposed-charter.html
dsinger: Chris asked for a table
of information about the specs.
... That would help: some of these specs are very small
... If W3cm thinks they are all big specs, then of course they
would be very concerned.
... I think building that table is critical.
... We could e.g. merge animations, transforms, and ? into one
line
... it would look like less work
... although it's the same
... the thing to consider is, how big is this spec, and how
much work do we expect it to be?
Peter: Who's going to create this table?
dsinger: wiki the list and have everyone fill in the parts they care about
wiki at http://csswg.inkedblade.net/
Peter: That wiki is public
fantasai: the charter's going to be public
Melinda: What are the metrics
we're looking at for the specs?
... number of pages? number of properties?
... If we want to assess the amount of work, what do we look
at?
Daniel: One thing w3cm wants is a measure of how big the test suite will be
Melinda: Many tests won't be at a point where we can count test assertions
Jason: When we do req docs, we
give a "level of effort" score.
... Would we want to give a scale?
<dsinger> yes, small/medium/large on the spec. and the test suite would seem to be enough
Peter: I think we should do it in prose
<dsinger> agree
Peter: This is a large effort, it will take many man-years. This is a small effort it will take a few months.
<glazou> agreed
<dsinger> the test suite is a few dozens of tests, the test suite is many hundred or thousands of tests...
fantasai: I can do that, I just need a clear idea as what blanks need to be there.
Items for each record:
brief description
status of the document
(including anticipated next state of document)
status of implementations
status of test suite
(status includes expectations)
issues/blocking items
reasons why we want this, why it's important
link to the spec
http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work
is a good starting point
<dsinger> is the spec. small/large, is the test suite small/large?
Daniel: This solves the problem
of information about the documents
... What do we do about the list of deliverables?
<dsinger> my bet is that this exercise will do some thinning...
Peter: Do we move the rest of the items to an informative section? Move it to the scope section?
Steve: Keep it normative, move it to scope section
Peter: We move things from scope
to charter as charter revisions when something needs to move
through REC track
... leaving it in the scope section, that allows us to do work
on them, but not move them along the REC track
... We shouldn't have to update the charter to let someone work
on an editor's draft
Daniel: I think working on an editor's draft is not a problem. FPWD is an issue
Peter: In order to the move something along the REC track, we'll send a note to the AC asking to shift the line from the Scope to the Deliverables section
Melinda and howcome have concerns about items getting stuck and not moving, esp Paged Media and Multicol
Peter: Those groups are not set in stone. Once we fill out the table, we can shift items around.
<scribe> ACTION: fantasai make table template [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2008/06/25-css-minutes.html#action01]
<trackbot> Created ACTION-70 - Make table template [on Elika Etemad - due 2008-07-02].
Peter: All advocates need to fill out their module's info
RESOLUTION: Make
table with information about specs
... Create short list of deliverables, put other items in a
normative scope section
Peter: I like the idea of an interest group for test suites, everyone give some thought to that
<dsinger> thanks, bye
<glazou> hyatt: sorry we did not have time for variables but the charter discussion was urgent
RRSAgent: make logs public
RRSAgent: make minutes
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