It seems to me that interoperability and conformance testing have become
problems. These can be helped by some effort in the area of validation.
As pointed out by Paul Burchad:
> The _reason_ for formalized validation is to keep the cost of
> market entry low for new participants, theesby maximizing the
> vitality and growth of the market, and the competitive benefits for
> consumers. As Amanda Walker wrote about her company's entry in the
> HTML market:
> In <http://www.acl.lanl.gov/HTML_WG/html-wg-95q2.messages/0143.html>:
> # We spent about twice as much time getting our parser to
> # swallow common illegal HTML than we did getting it up and
> # running on legal content.
> The _time_ to start formal validation is as soon as you achievs any
> area of formal standardization -- liks, say, the final VRML 1.0
> spec.
The legitimate fear that government intervention in VRML will slow
things down and muck it up is exactly what I am trying to prevent. VRML
is real and getting more important everyday. I'd like to see
appropriate, acceptable and most importantly useful government
involvement rather than inappropriate and intrusive involvement.
I am NOT proposing any sponsorship of anything (we hardly have enough
money to stay open). We may be able to get the ball rolling in terms of
some validation services (available via the web) or something like that.
I'm looking for ideas of useful services we may be able to provide. The
main function we can offer that most others can't is impartiality. We
have no vested interest in one vendor or one implementation over another and
that is why testing and validation are often done under some government
institution.
Keep those cards and letters coming....Sandy
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NAME: Sandy Ressler TELE: (301) 975-3549
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