Re: Put a time limit on animated gifs

to follow up on what Greg Lowney said:

> Provide a global setting that media players can query via DOM?

Yes, for the right interpretation of "global."

One wants to be able to assert this globally, but no be limited
to making one global choice.  There are multilevel playable
objects to control and multilevel scopes in which to assert
scope-wide policies.  The play action on a temporal-content
object should have timeout as one of its standard options.  The
option is settable at all levels in a hierarchical play
structure, with interdependencies.  Stopping [timing out] a
parent stops all descendents.

The SMIL model is a reasonable place to start in defining this
hierarchical policy of play control.  The DOM should conveniently
support the following negotiation-of-control scenario: the author
program can fully specify a presentation segment and yet a policy
flowing down over the playable structure from the user can adjust
appropriate details.

One possible approach is that user preferences are rolled into an
"accepts-media" policy profile for a virtual device, and
substreams of content are allocated to these devices.  The point
here is that the user wants to treat captions, for example as a
reasonably autonomous subdomain from the bulk of the
presentation.  And the user wants to assert preferences against
classes of behavior (e.g. timeout everything that acts like a
video or animation).

Captions are a subdomain of activity where user overcalls are
more likely than outside that area, and the user is relatively
likely to wants to position or style the caption player as an
entity, apart from the full-presentation context.  So a virtual
device for such a channel is a logical choice of structure in
DOM-izing the play of multimedia.

Are there people who want to participate in the "multimedia UA"
discussions who don't have member access to the W3C site?  I can
out some stuff from <http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/Group/SMIL/> if
need be.

Al

> 
> 		-----Original Message-----
> 		From:	Markku T. Hakkinen
> [mailto:hakkinen@dev.prodworks.com]
> 		Sent:	Thursday, October 29, 1998 12:38 PM
> 		To:	WAU-ua
> 		Subject:	RE: Put a time limit on animated gifs
> 
> 		Isn't the issue of GIF animations applicable to shockwave
> (or any other
> 		animation object)?  I am familiar with a website that had
> the same
> 		animation, done both as a shockwave plugin and as a GIF (for
> non-shockwave
> 		euquipped browsers). The user could not tell the difference.
> 
> 		Does the IE "Show Animations" option apply to plug-ins, too?
> >From the user
> 		perspective, there needs to be a consistent UI for
> controlling media,
> 		irrespective of the type. The user should not be expected to
> differentiate
> 		the underlying media type (a GIF, SMIL, RealVideo,
> WinMediaPlayer,
> 		Shockwave, etc.).
> 
> 		Mark
> 
> 
> 
> 		> -----Original Message-----
> 		> From: w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org
> [mailto:w3c-wai-ua-request@w3.org]On
> 		> Behalf Of Paul Adelson
> 		> Sent: Thursday, October 29, 1998 10:10 AM
> 		> To: Greg Lowney
> 		> Cc: allan_jm@tsb1.tsbvi.edu; WAU-ua
> 		> Subject: Re: Put a time limit on animated gifs
> 		>
> 		>
> 		> Off hand, allowing the user to prevent GIF animation or
> stop it
> 		> with one click
> 		> does seem simpler to implement and more flexible for the
> users
> 		> than setting time
> 		> limits. Are there disabilities/circumstances where time
> limiting
> 		> GIF animations
> 		> affords better accessiblity? Or would the prevent/stop
> pairing be
> 		> sufficient?
> 		>
> 		> Greg Lowney wrote:
> 		>
> 		> > Internet Explorer currently allows the user to prevent
> GIFs
> 		> from animating,
> 		> > or to stop the animation at any time by pressing ESC.
> 		> >
> 		> >                 -----Original Message-----
> 		> >                 From:   James Allan
> [mailto:allan_jm@tsb1.tsbvi.edu]
> 		> >                 Sent:   Wednesday, October 28, 1998 1:21
> PM
> 		> >                 To:     WAU-ua
> 		> >                 Subject:        FW: Put a time limit on
> animated gifs
> 		> >
> 		> >                 this might be useful in the techniques
> section,
> 		> >
> 		> >                 Jim Allan, Statewide Technical Support
> Specialist
> 		> >                 Texas School for the Blind and Visually
> Impaired
> 		> >                 1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
> 		> >                 voice 512.206.9315    fax: 512.206.9453
> 		> > http://www.tsbvi.edu/
> 		> >                 "We shape our tools and thereafter our
> tools shape us."
> 		> > McLuhan, 1964
> 		> >
> 		> >                 -----Original Message-----
> 		> >                 From: Karl Hebenstreit
> [mailto:Karl.Hebenstreit@gsa.gov]
> 		> >                 Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 1:07
> PM
> 		> >                 To: allan_jm@tsb1.tsbvi.edu
> 		> >                 Subject: Put a time limit on animated
> gifs
> 		> >
> 		> >                 Jim -
> 		> >
> 		> >                 One of my colleagues (Quentis Scott)
> pointed
> 		> this GIF Movie
> 		> > Gear
> 		> >                 utility, which allows the developer to
> put a
> 		> time limit on
> 		> > GIFs.  It
> 		> >                 seems to me this functionality would be
> best
> 		> implemented in
> 		> > the
> 		> >                 browser's "preferences"
> 		> >
> 		> >
> 		> >
> 	
> http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000DQ
> 		>                 5
> 
> 		 --
> 		  -- Paul Adelson
> 		------
> 		* The views expressed are those of the
> 		* author and do not necessarily reflect the
> 		* position of Citibank or its affiliates.
> 
> 		
>

Received on Friday, 30 October 1998 10:10:53 UTC