[Bug 23072] Interaction with DeviceOrientation/Motion

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23072

--- Comment #5 from Lars Knudsen <lars.knudsen@it-knows.net> ---
(In reply to Marcos Caceres from comment #4)
> @lars, how do you suggest we can improve that interaction? What would help?

Hi Marcos,

IM(H)O, it's important to put yourself in the place of an average Joe HTML5
developer who wants to do e.g. a game utilizing the accelerometer in the
device.  Very early, he will realize that he needs to lock the device
orientation in order to use the accelerometer for anything useful.  He might
also have read some info on detecting which orientation the device currently is
in via the media queries.  He only has one or two "portrait" devices to test on
so he doesn't even know there is the concept of "landscape oriented devices"
and - hence (with the currently proposed and existing apis and specs) will make
something that most probably will break on a lot of units out there.  If I
could go back in time, I'd push harder for a solution, where ALL devices are -
per default - considered e.g. portrait orientation devices for all orientation
related APIs.  Anything would then map related to this and make it VERY simple
for any developer to figure out if the values should all rotate 90 degrees for
a landscape oriented app/game.  

Even inside the same big mobile manufacturer company I worked until recently,
different branches made different decisions on the "what is north"
(portrait/ladscape) in the devices and consequently, apps behaved very
differently, which was sad - because if you can't count on consistency, people
will not use the APIs.

TL;DR:  Keep it simple, stick to the SAME terminology between specs/APIs and
please work with some developers while the spec is still possible to change.

PS - some fun info here: 
http://mobiforge.com/developing/story/html5-mobile-web-device-orientation-events

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Received on Monday, 28 October 2013 18:41:25 UTC