formally closing the feedback loop
Speaking of checking specs against tests, I suppose the first time I did that was when I was editing HTML 2. I maintained a collection of tests that I checked against the DTD whenever I changed it.
When we couldn't get other collaborators to install an SGML parser and do likewise, Mark Gaither and announced the zero-install validation service, a precursor to the W3C markup validation service.
I'm on an Adventures in Formal Methods panel at the W3C tech plenary day. I expect it will be useful to tell that story to make the point that formalizing knowledge allows us to delegate tasks to the machine.
tags pending: web history? quality?