Re: WebVTT spec

On Sat, 9 Mar 2013, Silvia Pfeiffer wrote:
> 
> There is the WebVTT file spec, which is used outside HTML as well, so 
> this is separate. But then there are the objects in HTML that parse 
> WebVTT. So, those need to be in some kind of "glue spec". Could be an 
> appendix to WebVTT, I guess.

I think that's the wrong way to look at it. It's the same kind of 
reasoning that led to HTML4 and DOM2 HTML being separate specs, with all 
the tons of bugs that created.

Conceptually, WebVTT is an abstract language, like HTML, with a defined 
data model and a defined set of rendering rules. It happens to have a 
textual serialisation, and it happens to have a DOM API. Not all 
implementations need to have both, not all users need to use both.

However, they are both intimately related. We can't change one without 
changing the other. Putting them in different specs, or making one a 
second-class citizen, will just lead to spec bugs, and that will lead to 
poor interoperability and unhappy authors.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Monday, 11 March 2013 17:45:54 UTC