On Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 12:28 AM, <> wrote:
>
> If we can define a profile then presumably we can define a test to
> verify conformance with that profile? For ease of use and
> maintenance said test could be made available online (eg via web submission).
>
Correct. A profile defines conformance, just
like any other standard. And this conformance could be tested.
For the archives, and courtesy Wikipedia's 'Profile (engineering)' article:
In standardization, a profile consists of an agreed-upon subset and interpretation of a specification.
Many complex technical specifications have many optional features, such
that two conforming implementations may not inter-operate due to
choosing different sets of optional features to support. Even when no
formal optional features exist within a standard, vendors will often
fail to implement (or fail to implement correctly) functionality from
the standard which they view as unimportant. In particular,
implementations of standards on mobile devices often have significant
limitations compared to their traditional desktop implementations, even
if the standard which governs both permits such limitations. Also, some
writers of standards sometimes produce vague or ambiguous
specifications, often unintentionally, but sometimes by intention. The
use of profiles can enforce one possible interpretation.
Users can utilize profiles to ensure interoperability, and in procurement.
In some cases, profiles themselves can become standardised: for example, US-GOSIP, UK-GOSIP and the ISO ISP (International Standard Profile) series in the context of OSI networking, and the various mobile profiles adopted by the W3C for web standards.
We should probably make it clear it the scope statement
that we're not just doing conformance testing of the ODF standard, but
also of any profiles that we produce.
Added to the conformance deliverable.
Sam
--
Sam Johnston
Australian Online Solutions
http://www.aos.net.au/
+61 2 8898 9090
