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Re: Browser implementations, prior to rec, used for justification

From: Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:59:30 +0200
Cc: "Michael A.Puls II" <shadow2531@gmail.com>, "Scheppe, Kai-Dietrich" <k.scheppe@telekom.de>, HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>
Message-Id: <676FE833-5D7B-424C-A118-2EC6BE25D737@iki.fi>
To: Shelley Powers <shelley.just@gmail.com>
On Jan 5, 2010, at 14:45, Shelley Powers wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 5:37 AM, Henri Sivonen <hsivonen@iki.fi> wrote:
>> The fact of the matter is that a browser with a relatively high market share buffers more with autobuffer='off' or autobuffer='false' than when the attribute is absent. Thus, changing the spec to say that autobuffer='off' must not autobuffer, would not give authors the ability to turn buffering off, since specifying the attribute would have the effect of buffering more--not less--as long as the browser release in question has an installed base.
>> 
>> It's one thing to refine a feature slightly but in the same general direction. It's quite another to mint syntax that has the exact opposite effect from what is desired in deployed software.
>> 
>> For practical purposes, the current state of affairs is a legacy constraint regardless of how the current state of affairs came about: implementation of an old REC, implementation of a draft or vendors just making stuff up.
>> 
>> --
>> Henri Sivonen
> 
> 
> We can appreciate that one browser has begun implementation of the
> video element, with a certain behavior, but it did so without
> following a released specification. As such, the browser maker has to
> be aware of the fact that it may need to change its behavior, if this
> group decides that the implementation will cause additional problems
> in the future.

Note that the point I made above was about whether a spec change is something that would actually give authors the ability to control buffering. I wasn't making a point about making changes to a browser.

> This group is more than a rubber stamp for any one browser company, or
> even a group of browser companies.

What this group is is irrelevant to the question of whether authors would actually be able to make browsers download less data by specifying autobuffer="off" given software that's already deployed and out there.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/
Received on Tuesday, 5 January 2010 13:00:23 UTC

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