Re: Time to take a leadership position on client-side APIs

On Thu, 7 Feb 2008, José Manuel Cantera Fonseca wrote:

> I would distinguish between two kinds of client APIs:
>
> a) Client APIs for the delivery context
> b) Client APIs for controlling all the elements of the device 
> (phone calls, camera, players, etc)
>
> a) is theoretically covered by the DCCI but I think we need to 
> make the delivery context APIs universal and not distinguish 
> between the Client and the Server APIs. That's the position I 
> outlined in my Delivery Context Universal Interfaces manifesto 
> [1]. Also I think that Javascript developers are seeking for 
> simpler interfaces than the DCCI ... and also implementors :), I 
> think. The initial work on the advanced API maed in the DDWG can 
> serve as a seed for this universal interfaces for the DC

I am uncertain as to the basis for a property being (a) or (b), is 
it just a case of the property being read-only? That seems a little 
weak. I can see why having the same API on both client and server 
would be helpful, but doesn't that also apply to dynamic properties 
and to properties that are also read-write? A common API would give 
developers greater freedom to decide whether to put more of the 
application on the client and less on the server, or vice versa. If 
applications were authored at a higher (i.e. more declarative) 
level, then the balance could be automatically selected to match the 
delivery context.

> b) is indeed a hot topic these days and for the future. I think it 
> involves several standards organizations and alliances, 
> potentially (Open AJax Alliance, W3C, OMA, 3GPP, OMTP ...). I've 
> seen many people talking about the standardization of this kind of 
> APIs but not real work has started yet. So I think we need to 
> start with something, perhaps a workshop to raise the needed level 
> of awareness and attract more people to the UWA group

Yes, a workshop could be an excellent way to draw attention to this 
area and bring all of the stakeholders together, particularly if it 
were sponsored by the MWI.

> [1] 
http://uwa.morfeo-project.org/archives/delivery-context-universal-interfaces

  Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett