Re: [whatwg] (X)HTML + SMIL?

On  27-Dec-2008, at 20:28 , Giovanni Campagna wrote:

> I'm sorry you misunderstood my question, that was: has W3C planned  
> any work about XHTML2 + SMIL
> Then I presented two use cases (video and animation).

The problem with XHTML+SMIL is that it never got into the REC track,  
because there was no second implementation, Microsoft's HTML+TIME is  
the only one. This is a shame, because some of the ways XHTML+SMIL  
allows reuse of SMIL global timing constructs in other languages are  
pretty neat and non-intrusive. The microformats work seems to be built  
heavily on this (or they re-invented the same concepts in parallel),  
it would be very interesting to see if XHTML+SMIL could  be revived in  
the light of what has been done in microformats and other fields in  
recent years.

Another angle of work that came out of XHTML+SMIL is SMIL Timesheets (http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-timesheets-20080110/ 
), but it takes a different approach: it separates the SMIL  
containment model from the HTML/XML containment model by using  
selectors to bind the two, thereby allowing reuse of the single timing  
document on multiple similar HTML document, similar to stylesheets  
(hence the name Timesheets). Timesheets currently has a similar  
problem as XHTML+SMIL: it needs some more momentum behind it.

The SYMM working group is currently actively investigating the  
possibilities of continuing work on XHTML+SMIL, Timesheets or a  
combination of the two. If people are interested in this area: please  
join the SYMM WG. And (to put a little pressure on:-): please join the  
working group soon, there's decisions to be made that may require a  
charter extension, and if the group decides there's not enough  
momentum to warrant that commitment, it may be years before the chance  
arises again.


--
Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen@cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack
If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma  
Goldman