Re: Open video for an open web

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aryeh Gregor" <Simetrical+w3c@gmail.com>
To: "Joe D Williams" <joedwil@earthlink.net>
Cc: "Boris Zbarsky" <bzbarsky@mit.edu>; "John Foliot" 
<jfoliot@stanford.edu>; <public-html@w3.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: Open video for an open web


> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 11:22 PM, Joe D Williams 
> <joedwil@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> You ask about how the spec would change anything? How did offering 
>> <img>
>> affect evolution of the WWW.
>
> <img> was invented by Mosaic and copied by other browsers for 
> compatibility:
>
> http://diveintomark.org/archives/2009/11/02/why-do-we-have-an-img-element
>
> I don't know why it's relevant.  It's an illustration of the 
> principle
> that in real life, implementers make the decisions, not spec 
> writers.
> In fact, the entire history of HTML5 is a testament to that fact.
> Adding something to the spec when Apple refuses to support it is not
> going to change anything.

It isn't really relevant to <video> except that numerous alternative 
forms were available almost right out to box and it was not necessary 
to specify some baseline that all (2 or 3) UAs could handle because 
they all mostly got on board able to handle a couple of alternatives. 
For <video> I don't think that is true. For Apple, I notice that a 
sort of plugin is available, but that puts it more or less out of your 
control. Like saying IE does not support SVG when what can be done is 
for the user to take control and add-on support. This in some ways 
takes the 'standard' feature out of UA control and probably changing 
the authoring and using experience uniquely in some way.

Good Luck and Best Regards,
Joe

Received on Friday, 5 February 2010 02:45:49 UTC