[sword-devel] Linked in audio files

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Karl Kleinpaste <karl at kleinpaste.org> writes:
> the application probably has to hack the filter output to spackle in a
> standard miniature image to indicate it, to go along with the intended
> <img> pseudo-picture actually-audio reference

It occurs to me as well that simply adding a standard "there's audio
here" image file to spackle _alongside_ the existing tag...

<a href="showImage"><img file="audio-is-here.png"><img file="foo.mp3"></a>

...will have bad visual side effects because any HTML renderer will
still try to interpret "foo.mp3" badly, resulting in a typical "a broken
picture was here" display in the output.  This means that the
filter-supplied <img> reference must be removed entirely to prevent this
bad visual.  So the further hackery done to this content would have to
replace entirely the filter-supplied <img>, instead spackling in a total
replacement reference, which (just thinking of possibilities off the top
of my head) would probably be of the form...

<img file="audio-is-here.png" audio="foo.mp3" start=... stop=...>

...which again means that [a] the application must post-hack the filter
output severely, [b] we are overloading <img> in ways we should not, [c]
we are extending the qualifiers on <img>, and [d] neither the filters
nor any apps are anywhere near being able to handle any of this because
there is no way at this time to carry the "audio=..." qualifier into the
"showImage" by which the app actually interprets the need for display.

This is wrong.

Creating a new <audio> tag (or something similar) that gets wrapped in
something like <a href="passagestudy.jsp?action=playAudio..."> would let
this happen in much more consistent, standard, and reliable ways.