Proposed clarification of checkpoint 9.4

Hello,

Checkpoint 9.4 of the Proposed Recommendation [1] reads:

  9.4 When loading content (e.g., document, image, audio,
      video, etc.) indicate what proportion of the content has 
      loaded and whether loading has stalled. [Priority 3] 

We do not have a definition of "load". I believe that
this means "to put in the viewport", i.e., to render, rather
than retrieve (although delays in loading may be due
to delays in retrieval initially). I therefore propose
the following restatement of the requirement:

<NEW>
  9.4 When rendering content (e.g., document, image, audio,
      video, etc.), indicate what proportion of the content has 
      been rendered and whether rendering has stalled. [Priority 3] 
</NEW>

We do have a definition of "rendered content".


Note: 
There is still a slight ambiguity, but I propose to not worry
about it. The proportion (e.g., percentage) should probably
represent the proportion of currently rendered content to the
total rendered content. However, user agents that render 
incrementally may not know how much total rendered content 
there will be. An approximation based on the byte-size of 
the document source would be adequate. Document entity 
length may be known in advance (e.g., through the 
"Content-Length entity-header field in HTTP/1.1 [2], 
section 14.13). If I've misquoted the HTTP spec, please let
me know.

  - Ian

P.S. I am proposing this change in an effort to harmonize our
use of "content" in the document.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/PR-UAAG10-20000310
[2] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt
-- 
Ian Jacobs (jacobs@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                         +1 831 457-2842
Cell:                        +1 917 450-8783

Received on Friday, 5 May 2000 19:40:17 UTC