- From: Simon Harper <simon.harper@manchester.ac.uk>
- Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:55:53 +0100
- To: UAWG list <w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>
Hi there, I've been trying to do my ACTIONS and they seem very difficult without an accurate idea about what we mean by a User Agent; actually I think that what it really means is who should conform to UAAG 2.0. Anyhow I've been trying to come up with a good all encompassing definition - but I can't. So I tried a different approach, a series of simple questions (tests) that allow us to define who needs to meet our guidelines. Here's my initial attempt: If the following three conditions are met then it is a Primary User Agent and Must Conform to UAAG: 1) If it is a standalone application; and 2) If it interprets any w3c specified language; and 3) If it provides a user interface or interprets either a procedural or declaritive language that may be used to provide a user interface. If the following two conditions are met then it is a User Agent Extension or Plug-In and Must Conform to UAAG: 1) If it is launched by, or extends the functionality of, a Primary User Agent; and 2) If post-launch user interaction either becomes part of, or is within the bounds of, the Primary User Agent. If the following three conditions are met then it is a Generated User Agent (with inaccessible interface) and Must Conform to UAAG: 1) If the user interface is generated by the interpretation of either a procedural or declaritive language; and 2) If this interpretation is by a Primary User Agent, User Agent Extension or Plug-In; and 3) If user interaction is not passed to and from the Primary User Agent, User Agent Extension or Plug-In, or if user interaction does not modify the Document Object Model of its containing document. So these sound a little convoluted but I'd appreciate your thoughts and ideas about this approach to UA definition and UAAG applicability; and if we think this is useful, any cases for which these rules are disproved. Cheers Si. ======================= Simon Harper University of Manchester (UK) Human Centred Web Lab: http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk My Site: http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/harper/ My Diary (Web): http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/people/harper/ phpicalendar/week.php My Diary (Subscribe): http://hcw.cs.manchester.ac.uk/diaries/harper/ SimonHarper.ics
Received on Wednesday, 26 August 2009 10:56:25 UTC