speced / speced/respec

Misleading errata links

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#4,446 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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bug
Dominant language
JavaScript
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 21h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

We have to add an errata link for W3C RECs, but even though the errata file contains no errata respec adds the field:

Errata:
Errata exists.

This is misleading for newly published specifications that don't have any errata, as it pointlessly sends users to the errata file. I'm sure we'll get reports about it, and at some point users will probably just tune out the message, potentially missing when errata really is published.

I don't know that there's a perfect solution to this, as you probably can't republish the specification when you add errata to change the message, but can we use a label that doesn't definitively say that there is errata?

Maybe something like "Check for errata"?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the code that emits the W3C REC errata field and inspect how an empty errata file is handled. Compare the generated wording with the issue's example; done when newly published specifications do not claim errata exists while still directing readers to check for future errata, with regression coverage.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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