[Bug 12985] HTML 5 and IPA TTS

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=12985

--- Comment #3 from Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com> 2011-06-28 16:37:36 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #2)
> Despite the complexity of the topic, there is a fairly simple (and even
> obvious) possible approach: add an attribute, applicable to all elements,
> defined to contain the IPA presentation of the intended pronunciation of the
> textual content. If this becomes used by authors and utilized by browsing and
> other software, then new complexity (like allowing other phonetic notation
> systems as well, or specifying a way to indicate that a given pronunciation is
> to apply to all occurrences of a word) could be added later.
> 
> I'm sceptical of the practical usefulness of the idea. Few authors would feel
> the need to provide pronunciation information, and even fewer would provide it
> correctly (in the sense of describing the intended pronunciation properly by
> the rules of a phonetic notation). Browser vendors would have little motivation
> for investing on things like this, and even assistive software vendors might
> not be that interested, especially if they don't expect the feature to be used
> much (and properly) by authors.
> 
> On the other hand, HTML has had the lang attribute for a long time, and it is
> often mentioned as important in specifications (like WAI), yet ignored by
> almost all software that could make actual use of it (probably partly because
> it is known to be wrong information so often). A global attribute for
> pronunciation information (called "phonetic" or "pronounce" or something like
> that) would impose no support _requirements_ on browsers, and it could be
> defined in a simple manner.

If an idea has no known current use-cases, only theoretical future ones, we
shouldn't add it.  In particular, we shouldn't add new features on the
expectation that some time in future it will actually be used, because in the
time between now and then the feature will likely become polluted.

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Received on Tuesday, 28 June 2011 16:37:39 UTC