Re: Mozilla/Cisco API Proposal

On 7/11/11 8:37 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:
> As a general rule, I think we should follow a model where authors give the
> browser the constraints and let it work out the implications, rather than
> a model where authors make the low-level decisions. This is because if we
> have the authors making low-level decisions, the browser can't improve
> matters later.

Agreed, we're just debating on what the right way to specify these 
constraints, and how many kind of constraints can be specified.

> But now consider what happens if instead of saying the codec, the author
> had just said "give me video and give me audio". Ten years later, the
> browsers can all just make 3D work and the site, unmodified, becomes
> qualitatively better without the author having had to do any work at all.
>
> This is why the Web uses a declarative high-level model. It lets us make
> the Web better in the future.

I really like this principle, but I don't see how allowing the webapp to 
specify if the audio it wants to transmit is music or spoken voice is 
any less declarative.

We currently can't do this kind of dynamic detection of what the stream 
actually contain (or we can't do it well). So not allowing the webapp to 
specify these things gives us a non-optimal experience in the near 
future, in favor of a better experience sometime later; which in my 
opinion will hurt adoption.

Regards,
-Anant

Received on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 16:56:30 UTC