- From: Jon Gunderson <jongund@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 15:27:36 -0500
- To: Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>, w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
Responses in JRG: At 03:09 PM 5/6/00 -0400, Ian Jacobs wrote: >Hello, > >At the 2 May teleconference we discussed a new requirement for >synchronized views. In trying to add a checkpoint >to the document, I have come across the following questions: > >1) What does it mean to synchronize a view? Is it any more than > saying that the current focus in one viewport should follow > the current focus in the other (as well as possible)? Are there > other aspects to synchronization? I suspect not, for if the views > must be exact duplicates always, I don't see the point of having >them. > > Summary: Synchronized views means synchronized content focuses. JRG: The main context of the issue of synchronization came up in was in source or dom views. The need was to have a way to orient the user to the source or dom view of what had generated the selected content in their primary view. >2) Which views should be synchronized? I believe that the user agent > should <strong>not</strong> synchronize all views that happen to > refer to the same content. (In fact, it's even difficult to > say what we mean by "the same content". > What if two different URIs designate copies > of the same document? The user agent should not be required to > know that they are copies and that two views are rendering the > same content from different resources). Even when I open two views > for the same URI, I do not want the focuses to follow each other > automatically. In fact, usually I don't want them to follow each > other since I opened two different views to navigate the same > content in two different ways. > > Furthermore, synchronized focus changes may be disorienting > if the user is unaware that associated focuses are meant to > change together. > > Summary: Two views should automatically be synchronized simply > because they display the same resource. JRG: Probably the minimum requirement would be synchronizing a source or dom view with the primary view. I >3) When does synchronization stop? Suppose I navigate to a form > control and submit a form and the focus is following my > actions in another view that also contains the form. Should the > form be submitted in the second view? I don't think in the general > case it should. What about following a link in one view - should > the link be followed in the other view? What if the link isn't > even visible (i.e., it's hidden since the renderings are > different)? When should the focuses cease to follow each other? JRG: I am not sure that two primary views of the same resources should be synchronized. I think if we want to do this the synchronized view needs to be some type of view-only view or something the user doesn't interact with directly. The main purpose of the synchronized view was to allow access to "machine" content in a way that was easy for the user. In our discussions these were view only views. The user did not interact with them. >4) When do we want to require synchronization? We have heard some > good examples of using synchronized views, such as synchronizing > a link view with a primary view. In this case, the user should > be able to navigate the links and would like the focus to follow > in the primary view. That seems useful to me, but that happens > to be a useful feature provided by the user agent. How many > synchronized views are we requiring? One? More than one? Which > ones? As pointed out in point 2, I don't believe the answer > should be "synchronize all views". If we only require one > synchronized view, what should it contain? The links view > mentioned above may be implemented through style sheets, and > synchronized views in which users can adjust rendering is indeed > a powerful tool. However, user agents aren't required to > implement a links view with style sheets. Are we going to > require any other views than the outline view? > > Summary: Other than the outline view, we don't require > the user agent to offer any other views. > Therefore, I don't see how we can require > synchronization between views (other than the > primary and outline views) when we don't > know what the semantics of those views will be. JRG: I think the outline view right now would be a good place to require the synchronization. >We have decided to require an outline view but have not >required that view to be navigable (though we have suggested >a navigable outline view would be a good thing). Do we wish >to now require that the outline view be navigable and that >the focuses should be synchronized? > >In short, I think that we need to reconsider the resolution to >add a checkpoint requiring the user agent to synchronize views. >While synchronized views are certain powerful techniques for >navigation, I don't believe we have considered the problem >fully enough to add a checkpoint this late in the process. I propose >instead that we explain view synchronization in the techniques >document and provide the links view example. > > - Ian JRG: I think it would be wise for the group to drop the synchronization checkpoint and consider synchronization as part of the minimum requirement for 7.6 and/or 8.5. Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology Chair, W3C WAI User Agent Working Group Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services College of Applied Life Studies University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign 1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820 Voice: (217) 244-5870 Fax: (217) 333-0248 E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund WWW: http://www.w3.org/wai/ua
Received on Monday, 8 May 2000 16:27:39 UTC