[whatwg] Device Element

[Charles McCathieNevile]

On Wed, 29 Dec 2010 01:44:09 +0100, Seth Brown <learc83 at gmail.com> wrote:

> First I'd like to point out that accessing hardware is already
> possible through ActiveX, and I think I've heard of some people doing
> it with XUL. I would like to standardize these hardware interactions.



> I don't think it should be done without strict security measures,

Indeed. This matters...

> Also it should be possible to allow an administrator to set policies
> to block the browser from accessing usb/RS232.

So does this...

> At some point it is going to be necessary for the web apps to interact
> with hardware.... I hate the concept of platform specific apps and I
> think that once HTML5 if fully implemented apps will start to
> disappear. The only real hurdle left is hardware interaction, but it
> will happen at some point. Why don't we make sure it gets done right?

Indeed. This is the point of initiatives like Opera platform, OMTP's  
BONDI, and WAC [1].

> I'm going to start working on a concrete proposal. I've never written
> one before, so any advice would be appreciated -- should I just look
> through other completed specs and format it accordingly?

That helps in making the content easy to find and understand for people  
who are used to reading specs. I suggest you look at W3C's DAP group [2]  
for an idea of what people are doing - and at WAC for an idea of stuff  
that is being shipped already.

[1] http://www.jil.org/web/jil or  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholesale_Application_Community
[2] http://www.w3.org/2009/dap/

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com