More Widget 1.0 Thoughts

So I just found the requirements page <http://www.w3.org/TR/WAPF-REQ/>
and some things make more sense now.  Doesn't change my earlier
thoughts, just clarifies some other things.

One question I had was why ZIP is/was chosen?  Why not one of the (I
am tempted to say more open?) compression formats such as TAR+GZIP or
just TAR?  Maybe I'm missing something.

>From the requirements doc : "The APIs that authors can use to
programmatically access..."
Is the list there given considered an exhaustive list of what may be
treated by the spec?  Much of what is there is not mentioned in the
draft.  Preferences is a nice thing, but what about non-preference
data?  Is that to be treated or not?  Is there a place for widgets to
be able to launch other widgets or dialogs, etc?

How is extensibility on this?  Obviously any JavaScript (ECMAScript)
stuff can be extended by using <script src="..." /> tags to include
other APIs.  I assume we're allowed to extend the manifest XML with
namespacing?

>From the requirements doc : "The packaging format should support
optional data compression to make packages smaller." -- the spec
doesn't make it sound too optional.  Can one just use a folder of
files then?

>From the requirements doc (R20) : "XML is generally excepted and
understood by..." -- I assume that's meant to be "accepted"?

You have documented many desktop-based systems (which I had now come
to expect from this spec), but you then included AOL Modules...  If
you are referencing one online system, why not others (such as
netvibes and live.com) perhaps they're not identical, but they're
closely related systems.  Again, I may be missing something.

Anyway, just thoughts :)

Received on Friday, 23 February 2007 23:07:12 UTC