I would like to hear about the background behind the creation of the Gherkin statement and its intended use.
Is the Gherkin statement about how to write to make sure it conforms to the IFC schema?
Is the Gherkin statement a simplified version of EXPRESS (.exp) that is easier for implementers to understand?
Gherkin is a well-known toolkit for testing software, which is part of the family of Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) tools.
You can see a paper about the application of Gherkin to BIM here:
Zotero | Your personal research assistant (feel free to join this zotero library, so you can also contribute).
Gherkin is presented as a better alternative to mvdXML. I’ve added 3 notes from the paper to illustrate that Gherkin is more economical and natural to write.
Hope to help!
Not sure what you mean with ‘Gherkin statement’. Gherkin is a syntax (Gherkin Syntax - Cucumber Documentation) that is used in the validation service to structure rules that the validation service should check.
Currently we are transforming different kind of normative and non-normative specifications in IFC into rules (with the Gherkin syntax). For example some informal propositions, but also concept templates, implementer agreements and some other rules are programatically defined in the validation service (using gherkin syntax). You can follow the progress here: GitHub - buildingSMART/ifc-gherkin-rules
Gherkin is a syntax that is not created or maintained by buildingSMART. It is something we use in the development of the validation service.
It is not intended to replace any buildingSMART standards.