Comments for WD-speech-synthesis-20010103

Here are comments in response to your request for review of the
"Speech Synthesis Markup Language Specification for the Speech Interface
Framework" Last Call Working Draft [1].

The title "Speech Synthesis Markup Language Specification for the
Speech Interface Framework" is quite long. How does "Speech
Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Specification Version 1.0" sound?

The references need development and could work without hopping to
other specs. In 1., JSML can be a link [JSML] to your normative
references in section 7. In 1.3, 2.8, and 2.9 there can be a link
[CSS2]. In 2.2, I would use XML 1.0 section 2.12 as the authority
with a [XML] link to your normative references.

These documents could all be normative references rather than links
in the running text; I may have missed some:
Speech Synthesis Markup Requirements for Voice Markup Languages
Cascading Style Sheets, level 2
RFC 1766
Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition)
Namespaces in XML
International Phonetic Alphabet
ASCII Phonetic Symbols for the World's Languages: Worldbet
Computer-coding the IPA: a proposed extension of SAMPA

A good model is HTML at http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/references.html.
(The definition terms like [CSS2] can be black.)

Just a comment that the introduction especially 1.2 is very helpful.

Below, a section number is followed by a quote and then a suggestion.

Abstract
working group
Working Group
[For W3C entities, you can copy capitalization conventions from the
W3C Process document at http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/.]

web [twice]
Web

and etc.
etc.

1.
Standard
standard

1. par. 2
web
Web

and etc.
etc.

1.1 list item 2
Audio Cascading Style Sheets
aural Cascading Style Sheets

In 1.2, the items with hyphens for bullets could be unordered lists.
Also, in list item 5, "- Markup support" is br-separated unlike the
others.

1.2 list item 4
names; e.g.
names, e.g.

1.3 list 1 item 3
as many details
[does this mean "many details" or "as many details as are necessary"?]

1.3 list 2 item 2
Interoperability with Aural CSS:
Interoperability with aural CSS (ACSS):

Aural CSS-enabled
aural CSS-enabled

1.3 list 2 item 3
style-sheet [twice]
style sheet

2.3 last par.
an enclosing paragraph or sentence elements
an enclosing paragraph or sentence element

2.4 Time, Date and Measure Types last par.
separated by single, non-alphanumeric character.
separated by a single, non-alphanumeric character.

2.4 Address, Name, Net Types list item 2
internet
Internet

2.4 third example
acme.com is a registered domain. W3C recommends using example.com,
example.org, or example.net which IANA has reserved for examples.
Please see RFC 2606 section 3 at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt.

2.5 list item 2
Postscript
PostScript

2.6 list item 2 needs an ending period.

2.8 list item 2 and 2.9 duration
     It follows the "Times" attribute format from the
     Cascading Style Sheet Specification. e.g. "250ms", "3s".
could read [five changes here]:
     It follows the "time" attribute format from the
     Cascading Style Sheet Level 2 Recommendation [CSS2],
     e.g. "250ms", "3s".

2.9 Relative values
SSML
[The acronym would work fine throughout the spec. I would use it
in parentheses after the first occurrence of "Speech Synthesis
Markup Language" in the Abstract or section 1 and thereafter.]

2.9 Pitch contour
attribute (absolute,
attribute; (absolute,

2.9 last word
minute.)
minute).

2.10 par. 1
mime-type
MIME type

3.1
Lernout and Hauspie Speech Products
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products

3.3
dialog markup language
[Is this "Dialog Markup Language"?]

3.6 par. 1
string (markup
string; (markup

4.
Informative.
informative.

4. second example
Lee
Berners-Lee

<audio src="http://www.w3c.org/music.wav">
<audio src="http://w3c.example.org/music.wav">

5.
Normative.
normative.

The second paragraph needs an ending period.

5.1 list item 1
(relative to XML) is well-formed.
is well-formed XML [XML section 2.1]

5.1 list item 2
is a valid XML document
is a valid XML document [XML section 2.8]

5.3 par. 2
XML Namespaces.
Namespaces in XML.

6.
Normative.
normative.

7. Informative
http://www.voicexml.com/ [twice]
http://www.voicexml.org/

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-speech-synthesis-20010103/

Best wishes for your project,

-- 
Susan Lesch - mailto:lesch@w3.org  tel:+1.858.483.4819
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - http://www.w3.org/

Received on Tuesday, 16 January 2001 02:49:57 UTC