[RTW] Axles we don't have to wrap ourselves around

[Ted Hardie]

So, I just finished reading
draft-marjou-dispatch-rtcweb-sip-rtp-interwk-reqs-00.txt,
draft-rosenberg-rtcweb-framework-00.txt, and the thread to date.
 Both drafts have some nice ascii art showing where they expect
specific pieces of
functionality to sit.  The Marjou et al draft has this:

 -----------------                             -----------------
   |     RTC-Web     |                           |     SIP-RTP     |
   |   application   |                           |   application   |
   |-----------------|                           |                 |
   |rtcweb    rtcweb |                           |                 |
   | sig      media  |                           |                 |
   | APIs     APIs   |                           |                 |
   |-----------------|                           |                 |
   |                 |                           |                 |
   | -----           |                           | -----           |
   || SIP |          |<-----------SIP----------->|| SIP |          |
   ||stack|          |                           ||stack|          |
   | -----           |                           | -----           |
   |           ----- |                           |           ----- |
   |          | RTP ||<-----------RTP----------->|          | RTP ||
   |          |stack||                           |          |stack||
   |           ----- |                           |           ----- |
    -----------------                             -----------------

and the Rosenberg et al draft has this:

           +------------------------+  On-the-wire
                        |                        |  Protocols
                        |      Servers           |--------->
                        |                        |
                        |                        |
                        +------------------------+
                                    ^
                                    |
                                    |
                                    | HTTP/
                                    | Websockets
                                    |
                                    |
                                    |
                                    |
                      +----------------------------+
                      |    Javascript/HTML/CSS     |
                      +----------------------------+
                   Other  ^                 ^RTC
                   APIs   |                 |APIs
                      +---|-----------------|------+
                      |   |                 |      |
                      |                 +---------+|
                      |                 | Browser ||  On-the-wire
                      | Browser         | RTC     ||  Protocols
                      |                 | Function|----------->
                      |                 |         ||
                      |                 |         ||
                      |                 +---------+|
                      +---------------------|------+
                                            |
                                            V
                                       Native OS Services

I have to say that I like the term "RTC-Web application" better.
The working group appears to me to be taking on specifying how
to use a set of web technologies to talk to a web-based rendezvous server
(and potential intermediary) for real-time communications.  That may be
because they want to have live video of their poker partners on a gaming
site, because they want their shared desktop/conferencing software to
be able to call
out to participants, or for any one of a number of other scenarios.  But the
fact that it is a *browser* who acts as a client should not be our focus.  If
an app on a mobile platform wants to use the same technologies, for
example, that should
be fine with us even if it is not a "browser".

I think that means we don't need to be quite so wrapped around the axle
as to which hunk of code holds which functionality.  We need to be clear which
pieces of functionality we'll provide, but we should assume that continuing
evolution may mean that some bit will move from app/browser to OS just
as they are now moving from plugin to core application capability.

Just two cents with no hats on,

Ted