When should a Device API be exposed? Re: Atmospheric pressure sensosr API

Hi,   
Sorry.. dumb question, but I can't ever remember the answer: if a hardware (or similar) capability is not available on the host device, should the API be exposed by the UA? I thought I had read somewhere (HTML spec? WebIDL?) that the UA should not expose the API when the capability is not available.  

I'm asking because I saw the following in the Atmospheric API proposal: "Not all devices contain a barometer, and when there is no barometer, this API is still exposed to the scripting environment but it does nothing".  
  
Kind regards,
Marcos  
--  
Marcos Caceres
http://datadriven.com.au


On Thursday, 6 September 2012 at 23:30, Tran, Dzung D wrote:

> Hello,
>  
> I quickly put together a draft for the atmospheric pressure sensor, since I saw that this sensor was available in my Nexus Galaxy phone. Also, the use cases for this sensor are documented in the spec: http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/dap/raw-file/tip/pressure/Overview.html
>  
> Thanks
> Dzung Tran
>  
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marcos Caceres [mailto:w3c@marcosc.com]  
> Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 4:55 AM
> To: Doug Turner
> Cc: Frederick.Hirsch@nokia.com (mailto:Frederick.Hirsch@nokia.com); public-device-apis@w3.org (mailto:public-device-apis@w3.org)
> Subject: Re: CfC: Progress Ambient Temperature and Ambient Humidity Events drafts in DAP, publish FPWD of each
>  
>  
>  
> On 24 Aug 2012, at 03:13, Doug Turner <doug.turner@gmail.com (mailto:doug.turner@gmail.com)> wrote:
>  
> > Is either the Ambient Temperature Events or Ambient Humidity Events  
> > implementable at this point?
>  
>  
>  
> Not that I know of. It could be piggy-backed on Android, but...
>  
> > I looked at various popular
> > phones/devices and none come with capable sensors. Did I miss one?
>  
>  
>  
> I also looked but could not find any.  
>  
> >  
> > On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 8:35 AM, <Frederick.Hirsch@nokia.com (mailto:Frederick.Hirsch@nokia.com)> wrote:
> > > This is a Call for Consensus (CfC) to progress the Ambient Temperature Events and Ambient Humidity Events drafts in DAP and to also publish a FPWD of each when the CfC completes. It includes the following resolutions:
> > >  
> > > 1. RESOLUTION: progress the Ambient Temperature Events and Ambient  
> > > Humidity Events drafts in DAP
> > >  
> > > 2. RESOLUTION: publish FPWD of Ambient Temperature Events, having  
> > > shortname 'temperature',  
> > > http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/dap/raw-file/tip/temperature/Overview.html
> > >  
> > > 3. RESOLUTION: publish FPWD of Ambient Humidity Events, having  
> > > shortname 'humidity',  
> > > http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/dap/raw-file/tip/humidity/Overview.html
> > >  
> > > Please review the current drafts and make the comments you believe you need to make before next week, at which point we'll make the decision to publish or not.
> > >  
> > > Note that there is no requirement on FPWDs to be perfect — if they were perfect we'd go straight to LC. They need to be good for broader review, and reasonably feature-complete.
> > >  
> > > Where CfCs are concerned, silence is considered to be assent, but positive support is preferred (even if simply with a +1).
> > >  
> > > regards, Frederick
> > >  
> > > Frederick Hirsch, Nokia
> > > Co-Chair, W3C DAP Working Group
> > >  
> > > For tracker this should complete ACTION-570

Received on Friday, 7 September 2012 12:19:06 UTC