Re: Action-28: updated syntax document with time formats

2009/2/4 Jack Jansen <Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl>:
> I've updated
> <http://www.w3.org/2008/WebVideo/Fragments/wiki/Syntax#Dimensions> to list
> time formats.

If we actually want to allow these time specs to be written by users I
think we need to be a bit more lax in what is allowed.

We've seen users often want to write eg. "2:30" to specify a time of 2
minutes 30 seconds, rather than having to type out 0:02:30. I'd
suggest making the hours specification optional.

Using a single ':' to separate an optional frame count from the rest
of the time is visually ambiguous -- eg. does 1:12:07 refer to 1m12s7f
or 1h12m7s? We can't expect users to consult the grammar to see that
hours are mandatory and frames are optional.
(... and if the hours specification is optional then it is actually
ambiguous ;-)

I suggest using two colons '::' as the frame separator, which I recall
having seen commonly used in video applications.

Further, the meanings of specific frame separator characters (: . ; ,)
are more complex:
http://archives.bengrosser.com/avid/2001-09/msg01432.htm, and using a
single colon might seem to imply one of those meanings.

Conrad.

Received on Wednesday, 4 February 2009 23:28:53 UTC