Re: Proposal to expand definition of User Agents

At 2000-06-07 16:01-0700, Dick Brown wrote:
Good idea. Is this broad enough to include special hardware and its
software interface?

>The User Agent guidelines currently define user agent in this way:
>
>"A user agent is an application that retrieves and renders Web content,
>including text, graphics, sounds, video, images, and other content types."
>
>I propose we expand that definition to say (new text between asterisks):
>
>"A user agent is an application *or operating system component* that
>retrieves and renders Web content, including text, graphics, sounds, video,
>images, and other content types."
>
>Why the change? There are technologies that Microsoft does not consider
>applications, but rather part of the operating system, that wouldn't be
>covered by the User Agent guidelines under the current definition.
>
>Obviously, the OS vs. application issue has received some attention outside
>the scope of the WAI, and while I am not prepared to discuss that issue in
>detail, I hope we can agree on the broader definition.
>
>Dick Brown
>Program Manager, Web Accessibility
>Microsoft Corp.
>http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Regards/Harvey Bingham

Received on Thursday, 8 June 2000 23:21:57 UTC