[File System APIs] If one is good, then two must be better?

Hi Eric, Arun, Jonas, All,

During the review of the first draft of WebApps' proposed charter 
extension, Marcos raised (indirectly) a question [1] about the plan for 
WebApps' various file system APIs and I agreed to followup.

We have the two specs that Eric edits:

* File API: Writer 
<http://dev.w3.org/2009/dap/file-system/file-writer.html>. The last ED 
update was 30-Jan-2013 and last TR publication was 17-Apr-2012 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-file-writer-api-20120417/>.

* File API: Directories and System 
<http://dev.w3.org/2009/dap/file-system/file-dir-sys.html>. The last ED 
update was and last TR publication was 17-Apr-2012 
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-file-system-api-20120417/>.

We also have this spec from Arun and Jonas:

* FileSystem API <http://w3c.github.io/filesystem-api/Overview.html>. 
The last update of the ED was 2-Oct-2013 and this spec has not been 
published as a TR.

My understanding is the only implementation of Eric's APIs is Chrome. I 
do not know the implementation status of Mozilla's spec. If anyone has 
additional information about the implementation status or plans of 
either effort, please let us know.

The last discussion about the relationship between these different 
efforts was August 2013 [Aug-2013] and prior to that, there was some 
discussion during the April 2013 f2f meeting [April-2013].

Ultimately, I think there is broad agreement a single API that is 
broadly implemented and deployed would be `best` (f.ex. reduces FUD, 
lightens implementation costs, lightens deployment costs, etc.). 
Although I would (still) like to be optimistic we can agree to converge 
on a single API, previous discussions about this do make me skeptical ...

Eric, Arun, Jonas - can you agree and commit to converge your efforts, 
f.ex. just have a single API?

All - if we can't get a commitment to converge these efforts:

* Do we want to continue both efforts (and thus reflect this in the 
charter update)?

* Should we take a vote/poll with a goal to select a single effort and 
to stop work on the effort that has less support?

* Something else?

Comments are welcome.

-Thanks, ArtB

[1] 
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/2014JanMar/0093.html>
[Aug-2013] 
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/2013JulSep/0334.html>
[April-2013] <http://www.w3.org/2013/04/25-webapps-minutes.html#item13>

Received on Friday, 31 January 2014 15:22:34 UTC