UAWG Action 727 - Write glossary item for top-level viewport

https://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/tracker/actions/727

It seemed so easy...

It turns out that there already is a definition, but it doesn't mention rendering content and view/viewport as a whole is a bit bloated, so I decided to dive in and 
attempt a major rewording (including bringing in the ATAG 2.0 term "view" - http://www.w3.org/TR/ATAG20/#def-View). I'm actually quite happy with how it has finally put audio and printed viewports on a coherent footing:

VIEW: A user interface function that lets users interact with web content. UAAG 2.0 recognizes a variety of approaches to presenting the content in a view:
- rendered views: The content is presented in rendered form, typically according to the web content technology specification. This is the default view of most user agents.
- source views: The content is presented in unrendered form. The source view may be plain text (i.e., "View Source") or it may include some other organization (e.g., presenting the markup in a tree).
- outline views: The view presents only a subset of the rendered content, composed of labels for important structural. The important structural elements will depend on the web content technology, but may include headings, table captions, and content sections.
- property views: Only selected properties of the content are presented, separate from their source or rendered forms (e.g., image properties, JavaScript errors).

VIEWPORT
The part of a view that the user agent is currently presenting to the user, such that the user can attend to any part of it without further action (scrolling, etc.) by the user agent. : A user agent may include more than on viewport and they can be onscreen (e.g., windows, frames, panes, dialog boxes), printed (e.g. ink on paper, [ed. branded on cattle]), audio (e.g., sound from a speaker) or tactile (e.g. state of a Braille display). [ed. I'm assuming olfactory UIs are still not prime-time]
- NESTED Viewport: A viewport that is contained within another viewport (e.g. a frame within a document).
- TOP-LEVEL (USER AGENT) VIEWPORT: The highest-level viewport in a user agent application. 
- AUTOMATICALLY-ADVANCING Viewport:  Some viewports automatically advance in one or more dimension (spatially or temporally). Audio viewports typically advance automatically (temporally), otherwise they would not produce coherent output, and so do some onscreen viewports (e.g. rendering video or animations or auto-scrolling) and tactile viewports.
Note 1: When the viewport is smaller in extent than the content it is presenting, user agents typically provide mechanisms for the user to bring the occluded content into the viewport (e.g., onscreen scrollbars, printed page turning, audio advance and rewind).
Note 2: Because user agent applications can be nested, the top-level viewport in a nested user agent will not be the top-level viewport in the full user agent stack.
Note 3: The user agent's own user interface controls (menus, alerts, etc.) are not considered viewports, though if the user agent is nested the user interface controls  may in fact be implemented using viewports of the higher-level user agent.

Ed. So we would replace "top-level content viewports (e.g. windows or tabs)" in the document with "top-level user agent viewports"
Ed. We should also replace "Graphical" in most instances with "onscreen"

CURRENT WORDING:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/2012/ED-UAAG20-20120419/#def-viewport

Cheers,
Jan

Received on Thursday, 26 April 2012 21:09:57 UTC