Re: Next step?

A while ago, on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 5:37:14 AM, John wrote:

JH> We now have what seem to be two viable proposals for interoperable web
JH> font formats agreeable to most if not all parties, and demonstration of
JH> test code to produce and support both.

Yes.

JH>  How do we proceed from here?

There are various ways forward, but one way it to start a W3C Working
group to develop the specifications - both those for the formats not
yet standardised, and also something which references the various
formats that have in practice been used for Web Fonts, plus the CSS3
and SVG font linking mechanisms, and says something like "a conforming
implementation uses at least one of these font linking mechanisms and
supports at least two of these formats".

Often one would start an Interest group first, to discuss and define
the problem and start towards some solutions, but that work has
effectively been done by the participants on this list so we can skip
this step.

I'd like to ensure that, if a W3C WG is created, it continues on the
near-future and pragmatic orientation that we have seen here. in other
words, define clearly what works, document it, and done. no blue-sky
research or weird stuff that takes five years to get to last call.

JH> I have to admit that I rather like the idea of a 'Prove Richard Fink 
JH> Wrong' race to see how quickly the non-EOTL format can be implemented 
JH> and shipped in all major browsers.

:)
 
JH>  I kind of get the impression that 
JH> Firefox could do it within a week if they set themselves to it. IE8 
JH> patch anyone?

JH> All joking aside, how best do we proceed to getting one or both of these
JH> proposals formalised, supported in browsers and into an W3C recommendation?

You are right that both of those are needed (support in
implementations and also an open, freely implementable royalty free
specification with known patent status).

Well, I have been putting out some feelers and so far I think a
Working group is doable. Its not me that gets to decide, the W3C
Advisory Committee (AC) does that, but I am currently writing a
proposed charter which I will make available for public review,
hopefully by the end of this week. Expressions of support would help,
once that draft charter is available.

One way to do that is to review the charter. Another way is to say if
you or your company would be interested in participating. A third way
would be to get submissions of the two new formats (I can help with
that, if the authors want to contact me) which helps demonstrate to
the AC both that there is momentum and also that the Working group
would start with a well defined problem and a good idea of the
solutions.



-- 
 Chris Lilley                    mailto:chris@w3.org
 Technical Director, Interaction Domain
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead
 Co-Chair, W3C Hypertext CG

Received on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 13:12:13 UTC