Re: Draft Updated Charter adding Mouse Lock and Gamepad

I'd love to see this happen.

Chris Wilson writes:
 > I'd been talking with a variety of people about the need for a Music Controller API - i.e. MIDI input/output, so I can synchronize music apps, as well as
 > interface my physical keyboard controllers, synthesizers and drum machines with the web platform.  After some thought, I'd like to propose that Music
 > Device Communication be added to the Web Events charter - I believe the challenges of this API are quite similar to the Gamepad API (different API, but
 > the same general kind of patterns, and heavily event-based). This would be the web platform's analog to CoreMIDI on MacOS/iOS, or the Windows MIDI API.
 > Proposed charter text would read something like this:
 > 
 > Music Device Communication
 > 
 > Some user agents have connected music devices, such as synthesizers, keyboard controllers and drum machines.  The widely adopted MIDI protocol enables
 > electronic musical instruments, controllers and computers to communicate and synchronize with each other. MIDI does not transmit audio signals: instead,
 > it sends event messages about musical notes, controller signals for parameters such as volume, vibrato and panning, cues and clock signals to set the
 > tempo, and system-specific MIDI communications (e.g. to remotely store synthesizer-specific patch data).
 > 
 > This deliverable defines API support for the MIDI protocol and common music device scenarios in the web platform.
 > 
 > --------------
 > 
 > Some background why I think it belongs in the Events WG rather than the Audio WG:
 > MIDI is actually very much like game controllers in terms of being entirely event-based, and fundamentally being a model of sending uni-directional
 > controller messages back and forth between devices.  In fact, Microsoft's Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro joystick (I still have one somewhere in my
 > basement, I think -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SideWinder#Joystick) - actually utilized the MIDI break-out pins of the typical analog game
 > port (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_port#MIDI_connectors) on the sound card as a channel for digital data.  
 > 
 > The significant challenges inherent in the Audio API - the sample-accurate scheduled playback model, the convolution engine and other "inline effects" -
 > don't apply at all to a MIDI API, and there's not much in the way of shared concepts between audio and MIDI devices themselves (many audio adapters
 > implement a MIDI port too, but it shows up as a completely separate device in MacOS/Windows).  MIDI is a very event-based protocol (I've written a bunch
 > of MIDI software in the distant past, down to implementing a MIDI driver) - there's no scheduling, so you need to deliver events as they arrive.  (A
 > millisecond here or there in MIDI isn't a big deal, whereas in audio gaps like that wouldn't be acceptable.)
 > 
 > A MIDI API, on the other hand, would (I expect) have some music-specific APIs (e.g. NoteOn()/NoteOff() kinda stuff), but mostly it's about plugging in
 > event handlers for note on/off and continuous controller messages (and sending the same kinds of messages out, of course), as well as the configuration
 > system for "which MIDI port should I use".  Those all seem like symmetric problems with the other Events APIs, particularly the Game Controller API.  If
 > I didn't feel like the music controller API should have some music-specific APIs (e.g. the aforementioned noteon/off), I'd actually say it's just a
 > slightly different game controller.  MIDI may be frequently used in conjunction with the Web Audio API in an actual app, but the use cases, scenarios and
 > requirements are pretty different.
 > 
 > Obviously, I'd volunteer to edit (though I'm not tied to doing so either).  If others feel this fits better elsewhere, please give me an idea where.
 > 
 > Thanks!
 > -Chris
 > 
 > From: Arthur Barstow <art.barstow@nokia.com> 
 > Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:24:31 -0400
 > Message-ID: <4E81F8BF.1040507@nokia.com> 
 > To: ext Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org>, public-webevents@w3.org 
 > 
 > Doug - thanks; this looks good to me.
 > 
 > All - if you have any comments, please send them to public-webents as 
 > soon as possible.
 > 
 > On 9/27/11 10:48 AM, ext Doug Schepers wrote:
 > > Hi, Folks-
 > >
 > > I have made a first draft of a proposed WebEvents charter revision to 
 > > add the Mouse Lock API and Gamepad API specs.
 > >
 > >   http://www.w3.org/2010/webevents/charter/2011/Overview.html
 > >
 > > I made minimal changes to bring these specs into scope, which should 
 > > make an easy AC review.
 > >
 > > Please review the draft charter and let me know what you think.
 > >
 > > Regards-
 > > -Doug Schepers
 > > W3C Developer Outreach
 > > Project Coordinator, SVG, WebApps, Touch Events, and Audio WGs
 > >
 >

Received on Tuesday, 4 October 2011 21:14:58 UTC