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this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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As discussed previously, browsers are quite complex and so adding a new feature (subtitles) is actually adding several features, on top of existing features (video player) that aren't really (arguably) core to the web experience.
(I think olds like me want to believe the web is still "for" text and static images, but the majority of users today are (allegedly) all-in on video.)
Anyway, what sub-features make up "simple" subtitles? Oh the usual: where are they sourced? What format? What language? What encoding? (Utf8 one can only pray) Left to right support? Asian character support? What font are you using? System fonts? Are they widely supported? Does any of it work on mobile? Who holds the relevant patents? Etc.
I'll take complete video support over WebBluetooth, DRM, WebGL and other similar garbage.
Why is webgl garbage? You don't think 3d online games should be able to exist?
I never used one tbh. Last time I used something WebGL was when its tech demo was released.
Of course all of these have uses, that's why they exist. I just find these use cases very rare/exotic compared to viewing a video with subs.
A lot of people play online games. They aren't exactly rare.
Something that is actually a lot less used (and probably a lot of effort to maintain as well) is webxr. It's a cool technology but not very useful right now (although I could imagine it becoming more important in the future)
can we add webusb and direct filesystem access to the list?
There's direct FS access now? Wow, going full ActiveX
yeah, in chrome. It's put behind a permission.. but that's just a single click or two, and very dangerous, like webusb
maybe the plugin system wasn't that bad of a concept for video players and such, but it should be more limited and especially secured in any way possible