- From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>
- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998 18:44:16 -0500 (EST)
- To: Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
- cc: w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
Actually, my concern is that if we provide a specification which is incomplete, then two problems may arise: 1) The document will not help User Agents which do not fit the categories we produce. 2) Currently the techniques document says: 1.1 Media dependencies Not all user agents are capable of rendering natively all media types (e.g., audio, video, etc.) or all formats within a given media type. Similarly, not all user agents are capable of rendering to all target devices (e.g., screen, paper, braille device, etc.) The techniques in this document are meant to be implemented by user agents that support the relative media types. Thus, for example, if a user agent renders video natively, it should implement the techniques relating to video. Or, if a user agent does not render to a visual device, it is not required to satisfy the font or color techniques. In this document, we refer to a user agent that is capable of performing a specific task natively as an enabled user agent. An enabled user agent must implement a Priority 1 technique when it is enabled for that technique. This formulation effectively provides for a test by common sense in any given case. If we specify the media types (or Agent profiles, or whatever) then I think we are significantly weakening that test by common sense. In view of the rapid nature of change on the web I feel that is a bad strategy. On the other hand, as I understand it I am the only person in the working group who feels this way. So having recorded my concern, I feel that unless people really want to follow it up I will defer to the group and we need not discuss it further. On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Ian Jacobs wrote: [snip] Charles McCathieNeville has expressed concern that the WG, by choosing subsets, will make conformance difficult for some User Agents that can't implement all the techniques in that subset. --Charles McCathieNevile - mailto:charles@w3.org phone:(temporary) +1 (617) 258 8143 http://purl.oclc.org/net/charles W3C Web Accessibility Initiative - http://www.w3.org/WAI 545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, USA
Received on Wednesday, 16 December 1998 18:45:19 UTC