[whatwg] video tag : loop for ever

[Michael A. Puls II]

On 10/15/08, Andy Lyttle <whatwg at phroggy.com> wrote:
> On Oct 15, 2008, at 8:38 AM, João Eiras wrote:
>
>> Why not just assuming that playcount="0" means loops forever ?
>
> This was exactly my thought.
>
> If playcount="5" causes the video to be played 5 times, what should
> the result of each of these be?
>
> playcount="1"
> playcount="0"
> playcount="-5"
> playcount="foobar"
>
> Is there any possible usefulness whatsoever in making playcount="0"
> not play the video at all?  If not, I don't see a good reason not to
> use that to mean infinite looping.
>
> Either that, or some keyword, but I don't know what it should be.
> "infinite" and "forever" come to mind.

FWIW, the Windows media plugin APIs (when used with np-mswmp.dll or
npdsplay.dll with WMP 11 installed) have a playCount param. It's
specified to be a long with a minimal value of 1 and a default of 1.
If you set playCount to 0, the track will loop forever. If you set it
to < 0 or anything out of range or invalid, it'll default to 1.

I think if you have older versions of wmp installed though, playCount
of 0 will cause the track to not play and a playCount of -1 will cause
the track to loop forever.

Of course, a loop param would still show the intent better.

-- 
Michael