Re: (X)HTML5 + SMIL?

Ted Han <[email protected]> Sat, 6 Mar 2010 12:27:24 -0500
Newsgroups gmane.comp.web.smil
Message-ID <[email protected]>
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Regarding HTML5, i think that interoperability may be a difficult road to
hoe, especially if there's only one or two people advocating for it.

If i were to put together a proposal (and i'd like to), i would ideally like
to have usecases for where SMIL is being used now, what usecases HTML5
support would enable developers/users to do, and examples of things people
are putting together to get around a lack of support in browsers as it
stands (e.g. fake smile).

This is all info that needs to be gathered from the SMIL community.  So if
you have examples, i would love to hear about them.

I'm aware of some places where SMIL is used, i know that Hulu uses the
standard to serve to their player, the CDN Highwinds uses SMIL for content
delivery, and the company i work for uses SMIL to dynamically
generate/customize presentations to deliver to users (also to our player).
There's the SMIL subset in SVG that developers can use to enable animation
(i'm hacking up a demo of that too, although there are already several out
there, if you spend a tedious amount of time looking for them).  I'm aware
vaguely that advertising agencies use the standard, but not in any specific
way.

I can draft up cool examples of what SMIL allows people to do and perhaps
hack up some demos, but that isn't the same as having real world examples!

Cheers,

-Ted

P.S. the flipside to all of this is justifying why SMIL may be a better
match than alternatives like just using HTML5+JS, or CSS Animations.  I have
justifications for why SMIL is more useful than HTML5+JS (being that it's
declarative and doesn't open up a cross site scripting hole just by it's
very use), but i need to learn more about CSS animations before i can put
together a coherent argument on that count.

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Greg Herlein <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'd like to know why there has been such slow adoption of SMIL.  For
> me, the problem it solves is that it allows temporal definition in the
> markup language.  The graphical folks grok HTML, but they are not
> going to grok learning JS to make elements appear together, or appear
> in certain sequences at presrived times or in response to certain
> events (clicks, etc).  SMIL defines all of that, yet desptie my
> deamnds for it commercially (I am Dir Engineering for the largest
> retail advertising digital signage company in the world) only a few
> companies have anything that supports it.
>
> I'd love to use the momentum of HTML5 to get more merge.  How can I
> exert influence?  What tasks need to be done on the Engineering side?
> How do we all push this forwrd to obtain the *value* of a standard
> (because unless it's adopted it's a standard of no worth to the
> market).
>
> --------------------------------
> Greg Herlein
> Mobile:  415-368-7546
> Web:      blog.herlein.com
> twitter:  @gherlein
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Ted Han <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Thanks David :)  I've run across fakesmil before, but i haven't poked
> around
> > your source yet, i'll just do that now.
> > I'm curious what your experience implementing this in JS has been,
> whether
> > there are particular performance issues you've encountered, or things
> that
> > were particularly difficult that you may have had to hack around or
> > anything?
> > Cheers,
> > -Ted
> > On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 9:26 AM, David Leunen <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>> if anyone has interest in trying to develop a JS based SMIL player.
> >>
> >> I've developed a little JS script that implements most of the animation
> >> module (works with SVG and XHTML) + Timesheets.
> >>
> >> http://leunen.d.free.fr/fakesmile/
> >> It's not complete, but Jeff used to use it successfully on his blog.
> >
> >
>

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Regarding HTML5, i think that interoperability may be a difficult road to h=
oe, especially if there&#39;s only one or two people advocating for it.<div=
><br></div><div>If i were to put together a proposal (and i&#39;d like to),=
 i would ideally like to have usecases for where SMIL is being used now, wh=
at usecases HTML5 support would enable developers/users to do, and examples=
 of things people are putting together to get around a lack of support in b=
rowsers as it stands (e.g. fake smile).</div>
<div><br></div><div>This is all info that needs to be gathered from the SMI=
L community. =A0So if you have examples, i would love to hear about them.</=
div><div><br></div><div>I&#39;m aware of some places where SMIL is used, i =
know that Hulu uses the standard to serve to their player, the CDN Highwind=
s uses SMIL for content delivery, and the company i work for uses SMIL to d=
ynamically generate/customize presentations to deliver to users (also to ou=
r player). There&#39;s the SMIL subset in SVG that developers can use to en=
able animation (i&#39;m hacking up a demo of that too, although there are a=
lready several out there, if you spend a tedious amount of time looking for=
 them). =A0I&#39;m aware vaguely that advertising agencies use the standard=
, but not in any specific way.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I can draft up cool examples of what SMIL allows people=
 to do and perhaps hack up some demos, but that isn&#39;t the same as havin=
g real world examples!</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div=
>
<div>-Ted</div><div><br></div><div>P.S. the flipside to all of this is just=
ifying why SMIL may be a better match than alternatives like just using HTM=
L5+JS, or CSS Animations. =A0I have justifications for why SMIL is more use=
ful than HTML5+JS (being that it&#39;s declarative and doesn&#39;t open up =
a cross site scripting hole just by it&#39;s very use), but i need to learn=
 more about CSS animations before i can put together a coherent argument on=
 that count.</div>
<div><br></div><div><div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 11:21=
 AM, Greg Herlein <span dir=3D"ltr">&lt;<a href=3D"mailto:gherlein@herlein.=
com">[email protected]</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><blockquote class=3D"gma=
il_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-lef=
t:1ex;">
I&#39;d like to know why there has been such slow adoption of SMIL. =A0For<=
br>
me, the problem it solves is that it allows temporal definition in the<br>
markup language. =A0The graphical folks grok HTML, but they are not<br>
going to grok learning JS to make elements appear together, or appear<br>
in certain sequences at presrived times or in response to certain<br>
events (clicks, etc). =A0SMIL defines all of that, yet desptie my<br>
deamnds for it commercially (I am Dir Engineering for the largest<br>
retail advertising digital signage company in the world) only a few<br>
companies have anything that supports it.<br>
<br>
I&#39;d love to use the momentum of HTML5 to get more merge. =A0How can I<b=
r>
exert influence? =A0What tasks need to be done on the Engineering side?<br>
How do we all push this forwrd to obtain the *value* of a standard<br>
(because unless it&#39;s adopted it&#39;s a standard of no worth to the<br>
market).<br>
<br>
--------------------------------<br>
<font color=3D"#888888">Greg Herlein<br>
Mobile: =A0415-368-7546<br>
Web: =A0 =A0 =A0<a href=3D"http://blog.herlein.com" target=3D"_blank">blog.=
herlein.com</a><br>
twitter: =A0@gherlein<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class=3D"h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 7:01 AM, Ted Han &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:ted@knowtheor=
y.net">[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:<br>
&gt; Thanks David :) =A0I&#39;ve run across fakesmil before, but i haven&#3=
9;t poked around<br>
&gt; your source yet, i&#39;ll just do that now.<br>
&gt; I&#39;m curious what your experience implementing this in JS has been,=
 whether<br>
&gt; there are particular performance issues you&#39;ve encountered, or thi=
ngs that<br>
&gt; were particularly difficult that you may have had to hack around or<br=
>
&gt; anything?<br>
&gt; Cheers,<br>
&gt; -Ted<br>
&gt; On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 9:26 AM, David Leunen &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:leu=
[email protected]">[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt;&gt; if anyone has interest in trying to develop a JS based SMIL pl=
ayer.<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; I&#39;ve developed a little JS script that implements most of the =
animation<br>
&gt;&gt; module (works with SVG and XHTML) + Timesheets.<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; <a href=3D"http://leunen.d.free.fr/fakesmile/" target=3D"_blank">h=
ttp://leunen.d.free.fr/fakesmile/</a><br>
&gt;&gt; It&#39;s not complete, but Jeff used to use it successfully on his=
 blog.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt;<br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>

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