[Bug 13333] audio, video (and source) elements require param children or equivalent

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=13333

--- Comment #13 from Glenn Adams <glenn@skynav.com> 2011-07-25 11:48:52 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #12)
> (In reply to comment #11)
> > in order to effectively use video/audio elements in practice, an equivalent,
> > extensibility mechanism such as param is required to communicate to the UA
> > parameters that are not presently defined by video/audio element attributes;
> 
> If there are use cases, why not just define new attributes?

Because

(1) that is not the point of this bug request,
(2) that presumes there is consensus on which parameter attributes are
required,
(3) that requires possible premature standardization of parameter attributes,

> > the purpose of this bug report is to record and prompt action on the asymmetry
> > that has developed between object and audio/video with respect to parameter
> > extensibility support; if object supports this mechanism, then audio/video
> > needs to as well, if for no other reason, to facilitate a transition from use
> > of object to use of audio/video;
> 
> <object> is not exactly a good role model here. <object> takes arbitrary
> parameters because it allows for arbitrary plugins. <video>, on the other hand,
> does only one thing, so there should be no fuzziness about what attributes are
> needed.

I've been working with video/audio formats for many years now in the context of
their use with existing web content via object, and I can state with complete
certainty that this set of parameters is *not* fixed, not *known* a priori, and
*not* possible to standardize at this time and for all time for video/audio
element types.

Though some parameters are sufficiently generic to consider for standardization
as distinct attributes, e.g., "fullscreenmode", others are not, e.g., "drm*".

The fact is that object does support param. Given that it is apparently (though
not explicitly) the case that video/audio elements are intended to supplant
object, a similar extensibility mechanism needs to be provided for parameter
specification prior to standardization of specific parameters as attributes.

As I pointed out previously, if the HTML syntax of HTML5 supported namespace
qualified extension attributes such as supported by the XHTML syntax of HTML5,
then this problem could be resolved through the use of non-standardized or
pre-standardized attributes. However, that is not the case, and to obtain such
extensibility, one should not be forced to use the XHTML syntax of HTML5.

Over time I would expect consensus to emerge over specific parameter attributes
such that they can be added as standard attributes, however, this takes time,
and it still does not reflect the fact that new video/audio media formats,
transport protocols, digital rights management schemes, etc, are created on a
regular basis with their own requirements for additional parameters that cannot
be a priori specified as fixed set of known attributes.

G.

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Received on Monday, 25 July 2011 11:49:00 UTC