[tap-l] User Supplied YAML Diagnostic Keys: Descriptive Version

[Michael G Schwern]

chromatic wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 April 2008 22:57:21 David E. Wheeler wrote:
> 
>> In principal I completely agree with you, chromatic (that is, I agree
>> with the principal you espouse here; my agreement is not purely
>> theoretical ;-)). But how does that work in practice? Specifically
>> with regard to YAML diagnostic keys in TAP? What do you suggest? Maybe
>> just reserving the keys we know we need now, and then adding more
>> later as we need them, even though doing so might conflict with other
>> folks using such keys?
>>
>> I just want to know how we might put what you've said into practice.
> 
> That's my suggestion.  Figure out the minimal set of keys that we expect to 
> use in the near future and reserve those.  Document them.  Suggest that we 
> might add more keys later, if there's a rough consensus and working code.  
> Don't forbid people from adding their own keys, but recommend that they bring 
> them up for public discussion.

That's the plan.  Official keys will be formalizations of what users do out in 
the real world.  In most cases hopefully just a down-casing.

We'd like folks to be able to add their own keys as they need without first 
wondering whether it might be useful for others or worrying if we might add a 
key of the same name, but different functionality, later.  Thus the separation 
of local from official keys.


> It's a combination of the once, twice, refactor rule and the IETF's "no 
> standards without at least two implementations, and one of them public" rule.

I think we're in violent agreement.

To make one thing clear, there's already a few dozen keys under consideration 
for official status.  This issue covers not just test diagnostics but also 
test meta data such as host environment (hostname, ip, cpu, platform, 
versions...), access information (user, group, etc...), exit status, 
date/time, benchmarking information, etc...  See 
http://testanything.org/wiki/index.php/TAP_meta_information for more info.

Rather than rushing in and defining a bunch of keys that might turn out to be 
poorly thought out and unportable (for example, access information and 
environment), we can go ahead and define the dead obvious ones now, see how 
the rest play out and make the good ones official.


-- 
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