RE: sXBL implementations

Mark,
The sooner we can get sXBL to Last Call, the sooner the Binding Task Force 
can get started in earnest with XBL2. I believe there is a good chance that 
the features you need beyond sXBL will make it into XBL2. Others have 
expressed interest in the same features, including Adobe.

Beyond your small list of desired XBL2 features, Adobe has its own small 
list. Adobe is interested in XBL providing a standards-approved approach 
for XBL to work with languages other than SVG (particular whatever comes 
out of the Compound Document activity), and we want either the 'binding' 
property or something like it in order to attach binding definitions via 
selector mechanisms. Probably a few more things, but that's all I can think 
of right now.

Jon

At 12:13 PM 12/8/2004, Mark Birbeck wrote:

>Elliotte,
>
>We use 'the XBL family' in formsPlayer, which is an XForms processor that
>plugs into IE6. The current public releases -- versions 1.x -- use it for
>messages and a few bits and bobs (the multimodal demonstration on our
>web-site has text-to-speech messages, and this functionality has all been
>added using XBL).
>
>Version 2 of formsPlayer uses XBL for just about everything, from defining
>all our UI widgets (not just messages), allowing form authors to define
>custom controls, specifying new XForms submission techniques, and other
>stuff.
>
>XBL has generally attracted attention for its ability to allow you to define
>custom controls with other languages, such as SVG, SSML or VoiceXML. But I
>feel it also has an important role to play in making other extensions easy
>to specify, such as submission processes, extra validation modules, XPath
>extension functions, and so on.
>
>Of course, you've no doubt spotted that I keep using the term 'XBL' rather
>than 'sXBL', so maybe I haven't answered your question. But that is because
>there are features that we needed from the 'old' XBL spec that aren't in
>sXBL as it stands. Rather than implement a non-standard sXBL -- and get shot
>down! -- we decided it was safer for now to implement most of Mozilla's XBL
>1.0. It will be very easy for us to change when the time is right. (Just in
>passing, the kinds of features we needed were the ability to create
>properties and methods on the XBL object, as well as being able to map a
>property on the XBL object to a property in an underlying SVG control.)
>
>One final point, our 'XBL Engine' is a COM object, and we have a feature
>whereby a new COM object can be created using an XBL file to build it. This
>makes the whole thing independent of a browser, which I feel gives XBL a
>very bright future as a cross-platform tool. There are many times where you
>need to create an object for your application and you don't need a 'heavy'
>language like C++, especially if performance is not an issue; in my view XBL
>becomes a very neat way of defining these objects.
>
>And with our component IE6 continues to make a reasonable showing in the
>standards war ;)
>
>I don't know if that answers your question Elliotte, but I hope it convinces
>you at least, that (s)XBL has a lot of potential, and is a key technology in
>the web application space.
>
>Regards,
>
>Mark
>
>Mark Birbeck
>CEO
>x-port.net Ltd.
>
>e: Mark.Birbeck@x-port.net
>t: +44 (0) 20 7689 9232
>w: http://www.formsPlayer.com/
>
>Download our XForms processor from
>http://www.formsPlayer.com/
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: www-svg-request@w3.org [mailto:www-svg-request@w3.org]
> > On Behalf Of Elliotte Harold
> > Sent: 07 December 2004 22:23
> > To: Robin Berjon
> > Cc: www-svg@w3.org
> > Subject: Re: sXBL implementations
> >
> >
> >
> > Robin Berjon wrote:
> >
> >
> > > Do you mean "known" as in by people on the WG, or a more
> > general one?
> > > :)
> > > More seriously, last I hear Cameron was working
> > implementing sXBL on
> > > Batik, and yes the WG's heard of implementations being
> > worked on but I
> > > don't know how public they are at this point.
> > >
> >
> > Well ideally, I'd like to hear of a completely conformant,
> > open source
> > implementation that's fully debugged and well documented,
> > and, oh yeah,
> > throw in world peace while you're at it. :-) Practically, I am
> > interested in knowing how far along this stuff is, and where. Any
> > information is useful.
> >
> > --
> > Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
> > XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
> > http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
> > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/
>ref=nosim

Received on Thursday, 9 December 2004 04:02:21 UTC