Re: SMIL in SMIL?

On 08/10/1998, Joseph Brick <josephb@real.com>  wrote:
>>>  Can a SMIL presentation include other SMIL presentation?
>>
>>Nothing in the SMIL spec prevents this
>
>True that nothing in the SMIL spec prevents this, but we can't pretend that
>there aren't special issues with a SMIL media source that don't exist with,
>say, a video media source. Off the top of my head: 
>
>* SMIL files contain a layout element. If I have two SMIL sources within
>the same <par>, each defining completely different layout, what should
>happen? 

These SMIL sources will define their own layout, which is independent
of the SMIL file that includes them - they're completely independent
media objects, and should be treated as this

Including a SMIL file is just like including a Quicktime file with multiple
overlaid tracks in this respect, or a realtext file - both of them define 
their own layout for the screen space they take up

Example:

<layout>
  <region id="a" top="5" left="5" />
  <region id="b" top="10" left="10" />
</layout>
..
<par>
  <ref src="a.smil" region="a" />
  <ref src="b.smil" region="b" />
</ref>
...

a.smil
------

<layout>
  <root-layout height="50" width="50" />
  <region id="aa" top="2" left="3" />
  <region id="ab" top="1" left="10" />
</layout>
..
<par>
  <ref src="a.rt" region="aa" />
  <ref src="b.rm" region="ab" />
</ref>
...


b.smil
------

<layout>
  <root-layout height="50" width="150" />
  <region id="ab" top="7" left="3" />
  <region id="bb" top="15" left="20" />
</layout>
..
<par>
  <ref src="a.rp" region="ab" />
  <ref src="b.rm" region="bb" />
</ref>
...


>* Can a <ref> in a nested SMIL file refer to a region defined by its parent
>file?

no, for the same reason as stated above - don't get confused that this is
SMIL in SMIL, it's not really different than anything else in SMIL
(from what i see, at least)

Received on Thursday, 8 October 1998 16:14:15 UTC