HTML 4.01 Test Suite - Assertions
Testable Assertions Prologue
The testable assertions from the HTML specification are grouped by section, with one page per section. Each testable assertion consists of the following:
- A heading with the assertion number, e.g. "Assertion 5.1-1"
- A hyperlinked reference to the specific section.
- The text of the assertion itself, prepended with one or more of the following
- (author) - indicates that this assertion is a requirement for content authors
- (must) - indicates that this assertion is a required feature of the specification
- (should) - indicates that this assertion is an optional but strongly encouraged feature of the specification
- (may) - indicates that this assertion is an optional feature of the specification
- (informative) - indicates that this assertion refers to only an informative aspect of the specification
- (deprecated) - indicates that this feature is deprecated
- A series of hyperlinks to test cases which test that assertion
In some places the specification does not use must/should/may wording explicitly, but does use comparable wording which we treated according to the following transform:
- are | requires | causes | does --> must
- can --> should
- hint --> may
There are navigation links at the top of each assertion page that look like the following:
[Previous] [Next] [Contents] [Specification]
The four links are, respectively:
- [Previous] and [Next] will take you to the previous or next assertion page, respectively. These allow you to move through the entire assertion list a section at a time, going directly from section to section.
- [Contents] will take you to the table of contents.
- [Specification] will take you to the relevant section of the HTML4 specification.
A typical assertion looks like this:
Assertion 15.3-11
Reference: Section 15.3
(must) The HR element causes a horizontal rule to be rendered by visual user agents.
Tests: 15_3-BF-01.html
The name of this assertion is Assertion 15.3-11. It references Section 15.3 of the HTML specification. Because of the presence of "(must)" this assertion is a required feature of the specification. It has one test, 15_3-BF-01.html. The links to tests have a light green background for easier identification. Note that some assertions currently do not have any tests written for them.