Re: [w3c/manifest] Don't recommend extensions use vendor prefixing (Issue #1072)

What is `widgets`?

Looking at the [extension registry](https://github.com/w3c/manifest/wiki/Extensions-Registry) which the spec encourages implementations to put proprietary extensions in:

- There's one registered extension there which isn't deprecated: `gcm_sender_id` (the "gcm" is Google Cloud Messaging). I'm not quite sure what this is for (why it belongs in Manifest) but this feels like an appropriate proprietary vendor-prefixed extension. It isn't prefixed with "`google`" just because it happens to be in Google's browser; it's prefixed with "`gcm`" because it's talking to a proprietary service called GCM. So it wouldn't be appropriate to standardize this, but it's also not strictly tied to a single user agent. For example, a non-Google browser could implement GCM and make use of this proprietary extension. So I think this is an example of how proprietary extensions should be used. :heavy_check_mark: 
- There's a footnote that suggests we could add "`edge_web_store`", "`safari_web_store`", etc. I think those are also appropriate proprietary extensions: again, they aren't *vendor* prefixed, they're links to proprietary related URLs. It wouldn't make sense to generalize this to a standard "web store URL" member, because those URLs differ from one store to another. :heavy_check_mark: 

The key distinction between these examples and the one proposed in MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers#623 (`edge_side_panel`) is that the above examples are members that are specifically tied to a proprietary ecosystem (GCM, or specific store websites) - they could theoretically be used by any user agent. Whereas the `edge_side_panel` is only Edge-prefixed because the Edge team is inventing it and implementing it first. To me, the former is not a "vendor prefix", it's a "proprietary extension", whereas the latter is a "vendor prefix" and should be discouraged.

-- 
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/w3c/manifest/issues/1072#issuecomment-1449424403
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.

Message ID: <w3c/manifest/issues/1072/1449424403@github.com>