[whatwg] Apple Proposal for Timed Media Elements
Maciej Stachowiak
mjs at apple.com
Thu Mar 22 01:51:46 PDT 2007
On Mar 22, 2007, at 1:20 AM, Martin Atkins wrote:
> Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>> I think <audio> can use almost the exact same APIs for most things
>> as <video>. This has the nice side benefit that new Audio() can
>> just make an <audio> element and provide all the relevant useful API.
>
> To me, the distinction between the <audio> element and the Audio
> object is that the former has a "place" in the document where that
> audio content logically belongs, while the former is more of a
> global trigger for web application sound effects.
>
> <audio> could, for example, be rendered in-line with surrounding
> text in an aural browser. A visual browser would presumably provide
> some kind of representation in the document of the audio which the
> user can interact with.
>
> In other words, <audio> should be like <img> for sound.
I generally agree, but note that new Image() makes an <img> element,
so new Audio() could work analogously.
I think <audio> is useful for foreground/semantic audio, as opposed
to purely presentational sound effects, because non-browser tools
analyzing a document would have a harder time finding audio
referenced only from script. (Imagine a most-linked MP3s on the web
feature in a search engine.)
> Of course, what the visual representation of <audio> should be is
> not an easy decision. It's even harder than <video>, because
> there's no inherent visual content to overlay a UI on top of.
I think it would be no visual representation by default with no
controller, and just controls otherwise.
Regards,
Maciej
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