[RTW] [dispatch] Does RTC-WEB need to pick a signaling protocol?

[Bernard Aboba]

> Duh ... what are we abandoning 10 years of work?

The web is a "generative" platform that supports not just protocols, but also execution of code.   This enables the platform to be extended in a virtually infinite number of ways, including the development of Javascript signaling APIs, without needing to add yet more core code to the browser.  This is the preferred approach unless it can be shown that something *absolutely* must be natively supported (as was discussed at the workshop, STUN/TURN authorization for peer-to-peer media is probably an example of something that *does* need to be native). 

As an example of what is possible, there is an excellent Javascript library for XMPP (strophe, see http://code.stanziq.com/strophe/).   Poking around, it would appear that there are a number of Javascript libraries that claim to provide support for SIP (such as http://phono.com/), although I have no idea of their usefulness. 

Given the generality and power of the web platform and the ease with which sophisticated signaling libraries can be implemented today, the bar for getting additional code into any browser is going to be quite high.  If you doubt this,  ask the build-master of your favorite browser for the requirements for checkin of a complete SIP stack :) 

 		 	   		  
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