Re: Call for participation: Online meeting on Gesture Events Standard in Web

On 22/05/2018 21:12, Rick Byers wrote:
[...]
> 2) There's (almost*) nothing that a built-in browser API could do here 
> that a great JavaScript library couldn't. So the value of a W3C spec and 
> built-in browser implementations isn't that high compared to the 
> alternative of one widely adopted high-quality gesture library.

The one area that I could see benefitting here is that, with a 
browser-native API, there's a possibility for developers to listen for 
the high-level events, AND for the browser to then also provide 
alternative ways of triggering those - think for instance some built-in 
pinch-zoom or swipe that can be triggered purely through the 
keyboard/when using assistive technologies/etc. Basically, the 
undelivered promise of IndieUI events https://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/

> So personally I'd expect focusing on building and driving adoption of a 
> high-quality library/polyfill to be much higher impact (for the laudable 
> goal of "merging web and mobile apps") than investing in a specification 
> or browser implementations.
> 
> Though if we were to do that, perhaps the fasted path to broad adoption 
> would be to focus on the existing gesture API shipped by Safari?  If 
> there was a spec for this API, broad adoption of the API (via polyfill 
> and/or native Safari-only API), and at least one other engine (Gecko?) 
> interested in implementing it then I wouldn't be surprised to see 
> implementation interest from chromium as well (as for touch events in 
> the first place).  In comparison, getting broad adoption for an entirely 
> new API like the one proposed here seems much harder to me...

I'm actually wondering if the Safari gesture API used at all by 
developers in the wild. It's also very limited in what it offers. Then 
again, Microsoft's much more beefy and complex MSGesture API is likely 
also not used in the wild, except perhaps on MS-specific platforms (UWP 
applications and similar).

Speaking of polyfills/libraries, Hammer.js had, at least for a while, a 
good amount of positive industry nods (but I haven't followed it for 
ages, and I think it's mostly stagnant at this point).

P
-- 
Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Tuesday, 22 May 2018 20:29:42 UTC