Re: [w3c/manifest] Add `application-context` CSS media feature (PR #1218)

benfrancis left a comment (w3c/manifest#1218)

@marcoscaceres wrote:
> I don’t mind either approach, and like the disambiguation argument raised in the explainer, which may address some concerns raised by @benfrancis in previous discussions (at least in a far that clears the “am I installed?” ambiguity while retaining user privacy).

Yes, I like this direction. Thank you for further highlighting the ambiguity issue @kyerebo.

In https://github.com/w3c/manifest/issues/1092#issuecomment-3952165303 I highlighted the following as three separate states:
> 1. display-mode - What display mode the current document is being displayed in, already provided by the display-mode media query
> 2. installed - Whether the current page falls within the navigation scope of an app installed on this system, could be exposed using a DOM property or media query but Apple doesn't want to expose this in Safari due to privacy reasons
> 3. context - Whether the current document is being displayed in a browsing context or an application context - presumably less sensitive and still distinct from the two above

No. 1 is already implemented, Apple would prefer not to expose no. 2, this proposal specifies no. 3.

My only feedback would be that the naming is still slightly ambiguous because under the current specification:
- A web app can technically be both "installed" and using the "browser" display mode
- A web app can be "installed" on the current device whilst also being displayed in a browser tab (if navigation scope is not always captured by the installed app)

It may not be clear whether `application-context: browser` means:
- The web app is not installed
- The web is installed but currently loaded in a browser tab
- The web app is installed and loaded in an application context using the browser display mode

Fundamentally "browser" (a container) and "installed" (a lifecycle state) are not opposites, they are orthogonal.

I would suggest that a less ambiguous naming scheme could be:

- `display-context: application`
- `display-context: browser`

Reasons for the term `display-context`:
- It is a nice complement to `display-mode`
- Used instead of "browsing-context" to avoid confusion after the terminology change proposed in https://github.com/w3c/manifest/pull/1219

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Another way to reduce the first part of the remaining ambiguity would be to simply retire the "browser" display mode, which I'm not sure is actually implemented anywhere anyway? That still wouldn't solve the second part though.

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