Re: Can accessing the device microphone and camera be added to HTML5?

On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Thu, 29 Apr 2010, Fenton Travers wrote:
> >
> > Can accessing the device microphone and camera be added to HTML5?
>
> HTML5 is frozen to new additions,


Really?  Because in T.J.'s post last month in regards a syntax proposal,
Julian seemed to indicate otherwise:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-comments/2010Apr/0044.html

If I am wrong then I apologize.


> Standards are like software -- if you stop maintaining them, they die.
>

Which is why I was suggesting something much more living.


> That's what we're doing. How do you decide when to stop resolving bugs?
> Would you just leave problems in the spec unfixed after a bit?
>

No but just like in software that is why we have minor version numbers



> I think a better solution would be to have a continuous process of adding
> features and fixing bugs, with no frozen versions. What's the point of a
> cycle? It doesn't match any of the browser vendors, it doesn't match the
> authoring community, so why bother? It's just artificial.
>

When one says that they are conforming to a standard, then you have to know
what version of the standard you are talking about.  So a world where HTML
5.0 (if you will) is forever open doesn't allow that.  One where there is
HTML 5.1, and then 5.2 in 12-18 months, etc does allow for that.

That is a recognition of the fact that the world and it's needs are
changing, and it encourages the standards to move with it.  At least IMHO


> This was in a past version of HTML5, but was removed due to lack of
> implementor interest.
>

And that is a shame, but it doesn't mean it isn't important, or needed.


>
>
> >    - The ability to access nonfile like things (the address book for
> example
>
> Why does this need anything from the browser?
>
>
Because browsers exist on more things than just conventional computers.  As
we move forward we will be using a lot of devices that don't have
conventional filesystems, but being able to say upload a contact into a
webapp is important.

>
>
-- 
Jock Murphy
Founder
www.stufflabs.com