David - I was not able to submit my comments via the link you
provided below. Here is what I wanted to submit ...
Below are some comments regarding the BONDI 1.0 Release Candidate (RC).
These comments are sent as a Chair of the W3C's Web Applications
(WebApps) Working Group (WG) and do not necessarily reflect the view
of my employer and they do not reflect the consensus of the WebApps WG.
My comments are limited to the RC's use of the WebApp's Widgets specs
and do not address any of the other functionality in this RC.
First, it is good OMTP intends to use various Widgets specifications
being developed by the WebApps WG. However, the use of those specs,
as codified in this RC raises serious concerns and if this RC is
implemented and deployed without addressing these concerns, the
result will be increased fragmentation in the market.
* Use of incomplete specifications - the RC normatively references at
least three of the W3C's Widgets specs and all of these specs are
still in the Working Draft (WD) state and all of these WDs clearly
state the spec is not yet ready to be implemented. Thus, the RC is by
definition also a work in progress and hence not yet stable enough to
be implemented. Yet, the expectation appears to be that OMTP
considers the RC complete and stable enough to be implemented in
products.
* Spec forking and fragmentation - since the RC uses incomplete
Widgets specs, OMTP has taken the liberty of completing the Widgets
specs by both specifying "fixes" to known holes and issues and by
specifying "extensions" to the Widgets specs. This effectively
results in forking the Widgets specs and exacerbates fragmentation by
promoting implementations of BONDI widgets that are will not be
compatible with implementations of W3C widgets.
* Interoperability - it is not possible to objectively define what it
means for implementations of this RC to be interoperable. At a
minimum, I would expect the RC's exit criteria to include a test
suite that tests every assertion in the specs. Additionally, to prove
the RC can be implemented in an interoperable way, I would expect the
RC's exit criteria to require at least two implementations to pass
all of the tests.
Lastly, it isn't too late to address the above concerns if OMTP is
willing to work with the WebApps WG. In particular, we can work
together to: address issues in the relevant Widgets specs, complete
the Widgets specs and create a comprehensive test suite.
-Regards, Art Barstow (Chair of W3C's Web Applications WG)
On Mar 18, 2009, at 11:33 AM, ext David Rogers wrote:
Dear all,
I’d like to remind webapps members that the formal period for
feedback on the BONDI candidate release 1.0 specifications is the
23rd of March 2009. I encourage you to provide feedback before that
date, in order that we can consider this before the specification
for 1.0 release is finalised. Feedback can be registered as formal
Change Requests at [1].
Please let me know if you need any more information.
Thanks,
David.
[1] http://bondi.omtp.org/Lists/BONDI%2010%20CR%20%20Feedback/
AllItems.aspx
David Rogers
OMTP Director of External Relations
