Re: [css3-speech] phonemes

On this week's conference call, I'd like to discuss the 'phonemes'  
issue with the Working Group, and hopefully reach an internal  
consensus. If you have compelling arguments against my proposal (see  
message quoted below), please let me know rapidly. Kind regards, Daniel

On 27 Apr 2011, at 02:40, Daniel Weck wrote:

> Dear all,
> the publication of an updated draft [1] of CSS3-Speech is a step in  
> the right direction, as a number of improvements have been  
> introduced [2] since the 2004 version.
>
> Reviewers/commenters, please note that the editor's draft [3] (on  
> the development server) has been updated [4] since the official  
> draft publication.
>
> We now need to make progress on the remaining issues [5]. I suggest  
> we start with the "phonemes" issue [6]. As there has been prior  
> discussions [7] about it, we should be able to move swiftly.
>
> No consensus emerged from the aforementioned discussions, but it is  
> clear that the proposed 'phonemes' CSS property doesn't play well  
> with the principle of content / presentation separation: a text  
> change within the HTML document; with no markup alteration; would  
> require modifying associated stylesheets, in order for the  
> pronunciation rules to remain in sync with the targeted text tokens.  
> This would be a fundamental flaw with respect to the HTML+CSS  
> authoring / maintenance workflow. On that basis alone, I predict a  
> fair number of formal objections against the current proposal. In  
> fact, some CSS Working Group members have already spoken  
> disfavorably during conference calls.
>
> I am under the impression that the proponents of the CSS3-Speech  
> "phonemes" property argue in favor of it mainly (and pragmatically)  
> because of the lack of support for pronunciation instructions in  
> HTML. I'd like to point-out that the upcoming EPUB 3.0 open standard  
> paves the way towards a more complete and coherent speech-synthesis  
> ecosystem, by leveraging several W3C specifications:
>
> # HTML5 + SSML's "phonemes" functionality (using the 'ssml:ph'  
> attribute instead of the original SSML element-based markup)
>
> # PLS Pronunciation Lexicons (by proposing a "rel" extension [8] for  
> the "link" element in (x)HTML documents)
>
> # CSS3 Speech Module (all currently-drafted features, apart from the  
> 'phonemes' property which is judged inadequate by the  
> standardization committee)
>
> Given the profusion of EPUB publications and the growing trend to  
> distribute via web-browsers, this will set a significant precedent.
>
> Furthermore, the HTML Speech Incubator Group has now formally  
> produced a report [9] in which they mention the opportunity to  
> collaborate with the CSS Working Group. I suggest that we advocate  
> the same position as the EPUB folks, in terms of supporting  
> pronunciation rules within content documents via PLS and  
> SSML:phonemes (or such like).
>
> I thereby propose to remove the 'phonemes' property (as well as its  
> associated @alphabet at-rule) from the CSS3-Speech Working Draft.
>
> Regards, Daniel
>
> [1]
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-css3-speech-20110419
>
> [2]
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-css3-speech-20110419#changes
>
> [3]
> http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-speech
>
> [4]
> http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-speech#changes
>
> [5]
> http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Tracker/products/29
>
> [6]
> http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-speech/#issue-phonemes
>
> [7]
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2010Dec/0237.html
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2011Feb/0046.html
>
> [8]
> http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-pronunciation
>
> [9]
> http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/htmlspeech/live/NOTE-htmlspeech.html

Received on Monday, 2 May 2011 15:56:41 UTC