Last Updated: October 1, 1996

NIST's Role:

NIST has for a number of years provided reference implementations, test suites, and testing services for a wide variety of standards. In the past, these services were in direct support of government information technology needs. More recently, NIST's focus in information technology has evolved to support the commercial sector by building freely available diagnostic tools and conformance tests that will aid the industry in building robust commercial solutions.

As part of this effort, the Conformance Testing Group is interested in applying testing strategies to forward looking standards. VRML 2.0 is interesting to us from several standpoints:

• VRML 2.0 is forward-looking.
• VRML 2.0 is at a point in its evolution that testing can influence commercial solutions.
• VRML 2.0 provides NIST with opportunities for further research in testing methodologies.

The Conformance Testing Group has been involved in past graphics testing efforts, including GKS, PHIGS, PIKS, and CGM. VRML 2.0 provides us with all of the challenges in testing graphics plus the additional challenges associated with testing 3D worlds.

More specifically, we have the following interests in VRML 2.0:

• Develop a formal specification and abstract test suite (ATS) for VRML 2.0. The work will be coordinated and where possible accomplished as part of the ISO editing of the VRML 2.0 specification. This formal specification is an experiment for NIST, and it is hoped that this type of specification will aid in moving towards the automatic generation of tests.
  
  
• In conjunction with the VRML community, develop a testing strategy and associated test suites for the following:




• VRML 2.0 file syntax
• VRML 2.0 Browsers (interpreters)
• VRML 2.0 Authoring Tools (generators)


We are looking for help in these areas, and are open to ideas / suggestions. Remember, what NIST brings to the table is a long history of developing conformance tests and an interest in applying that knowledge to VRML 2.0. We are interested in working with vrml experts and the community at large to develop VRML-specific testing strategies and associated test suites that will be useful in building robust commercial solutions.



• Lastly, we are interested in developing strategies for making these testing services available interactively through state-of-the-art web technologies. Using VRML 2.0 as an example, we would like to build reusable components that will aid in providing interactive testing capabilities. It is anticipated that these services will be freely available to the vrml community.

There is additional information available regarding on-going efforts in improving software quality through the development of diagnostic tools, formal methods, and active participation in forward-looking standards from our division page, Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division.

In fact, if you are really interested in diagnostics and testing strategies, or just mildly interested in our new focus, check out our new lab page, Information Technology Laboratory. Here, you will find links to all of our divisions, which focus on various aspects of the information technology industry.