Re: Public feedback on HTML5 video

Philip wrote:
>> The author should be able to communicate to the browser
>> - whether it should buffer or not (determining how much this would  
>> be is something best left to the browser manufacturer)
>
> autobuffer does this.

Not quite.

Autobuffer allows the author to specify when a file should be pre- 
buffered.
Autobuffer *does not* allow the author to specify when a file should  
*not* be pre-buffered.

I too interpreted the spec to mean "the absence of the autobuffer  
attribute indicates that the file should not be pre-buffered" (hence  
my comment on that Webkit bug a while back). However, when I raised  
this point in the IRC channel, I was told that I was misinterpreting  
the spec.

Some clarification in the spec would be good here.

Is the absence of the autobuffer attribute an explicit request not to  
pre-buffer?

Currently, the spec doesn't clearly answer that question. It only  
describes what happens when the autobuffer attribute is present; it  
doesn't describe what happens when the autobuffer attribute is not  
present.

Here is my suggestion for the updated text:

"The autobuffer attribute is a boolean attribute. Its presence hints  
to the user agent that the author believes that the media element will  
likely be used, even though the element does not have an autoplay  
attribute. Its absence hints to the user agent that the author  
believes that the media element might never be used."

This extra sentence ties the absence of the attribute to author  
intention: something that is currently missing.

-- 
Jeremy Keith

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Received on Monday, 28 December 2009 19:22:45 UTC