Re: User Agent Types

HB: Comments by Harvey Bingham
At 13:58 1998/12/21 , Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>I think it is better to define functionalities rather than User Agent
>Types. Otherwise these definitions are not especially helpful - Netscape,
>and I believe MSIE, can be run with any default font which is available on
>the system. Therefore they qualify as both kinds of visual. Unless there
>is some exception made for Animated GIFs they also qualify as Multimedia.
>
HB: I suggest that when user personalities can be invoked to set up preferred
fonts, point sizes, window sizes, colors, earcons, etc., then there will
be interactions of functionalities that user agents will need to consider.

>On the other hand, where does a text-only browser like Lynx or W3 fit into
>the picture, other than when they are underlying a speech or braille
>output?
>
HB: What is w3?

>As a very rough first pass I would suggest that functionalities be divided
>into:
>
>text
>images (including jpg, gif and animated gif)
>video
>audio (playing an audio format)

HB: I'd include the synchronization of text with SMIL file containing a 
narration of that text, as in DAISY 2.0 and soon DAISY 3.0.
>
>Under text i would have several sub-classes:
>braille
>speech (rendering text as speech)
>visual rendering
>static rendering, as in a printed page
>
>--Charles McCathieNevile -  mailto:charles@w3.org
>
>On Mon, 21 Dec 1998, Jon Gunderson wrote:
>
>  I would like to propose the following types of user agent types, with the
>  following definitions:
>  
>  Proposed User Agent Type:
>  Visual Standard (VS): Rendering of document text content on displays

HB: ?640x480 or greater?
>  greater 640x480 resolution with default font sizes less than 48 point.
>  Examples include mass market browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer,
>  Opera and Netscape navigator.
>  
>  Visual Restricted (VR): Rendering of document text content on displays that
HB: are ...
>  a smaller than 640x480 or with default font sizes greater than 48 point
>  font.  Examples include screen magnifiers like Zoomtext from AISquared and
>  Magic from Henter-Joyce for people with visual impairments, and portable
>  user agent technologies for the mass market.  
>  
>  Multi-Media (MM): Rendering of audio, video or animations from file formats
>  that contain sampled or compressed sound, bit mapped video or image
>  information.  Examples include wave, mpeg and avi files.  
>  
>  Aural (A): Rendering of document text and alternative rendering of non-text
>  content using text-to-speech synthesis technology.  Examples include screen
>  reader like Jaws from Henter-Joyce and Outspoken from Alva when used with a
>  mass market browser and browsers developed for the visually impaired like
>  pwWebSpeak, IBM Homereader and VPInfoNet.
> 
HB: SMIL, SAMI interchange recommendations
 
>  Braille (B): Rendering of document text and alternative rendering of
>  non-text content using dynamic Braille display technology.  Examples
>  include screen readers like Jaws from Henter-Joyce and Outspoken from Alva
>  when used with a mass market browser.
>  
>  Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Regards/Harvey

Received on Monday, 21 December 1998 15:11:14 UTC