Re: [w3c/manifest] Distinction between browser and minimal-ui (Issue #1023)

Thanks. I think the situation in the general case is pretty clear (at least in intent, I'm not sure the spec wording supports that intent fully). It's the edge cases where it gets a little fuzzy. I think the essence of the question hangs on this sentence of yours:

> Browsers have things like tabs, often clear branding, bookmaking facilities, and other things that "minimal-ui" wouldn't have

I'd rephrase it as:

> Browsers **may** have things like tabs, often clear branding, bookmaking facilities, and other things that "minimal-ui" wouldn't **typically** have.

And the the question is what do you do in the case of a simplistic browser, not meaningfully different from what you'd get from a `minimal-ui` UA? This isn't necessarily what we expect from a mainstream smartphone, but the concept of a display-mode is meant to be generic, and to apply to any sort of device with a web UA. Not sure the browser on every TV, set-top box, fridge, in-flight-navigation system, etc, is always that full featured.

Even if you just stick to desktop, have a look at the browser offered by https://servo.org/. Sure, it's an experimental browser, with hardly any focus at all on its UI, but it's a browser nonetheless, so it needs to answer that mediaquery somehow. I'd expect the `display-mode` media feature to match `browser`, since that's what it does in the typical case of a standalone browser. At the same time, if you actually look at its UI, it's pretty-much what you'd expect for `standalone` (I cannot find any other UI than CMD+L to open a URL). Should the query match both? Should it not match `browser` for some reason?

The query is explicitly defined as applying not only based on app manifest mode switching, but also to UAs that match the described mode. So I think we need a bit more.

-- 
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/w3c/manifest/issues/1023#issuecomment-987553932

Received on Tuesday, 7 December 2021 04:18:39 UTC