prushforth
commented
4 years ago Regarding Section 6 Client-side Mapping API Capabilities, I came across a recent W3C TAG document labelled as "interesting ideas", which relates specifically to how to design a client side WebIDL-style API.
Maybe we should mention it in section 2, under "Guiding Principles", and see if we can apply the advice as we define and design our API?
Malvoz
I've been writing a narration track for some video demos I'm preparing for the MapML polyfills, and in doing so I realized that we may be overlooking an important aspect of Web map design that is not really so much about how Web maps work, but is more about how the Web platform is designed. I tried to capture some of this in my now out of date document.
The Web platform defines a constrained design environment, especially HTML. So we need to respect the constraints of that environment, and especially the constraints that existing Web of documents (including map servers), imposes on our design. I suggest these are also requirements, but some may not seem obvious, or as easily enumerable as the behaviour of existing Web map libraries.
The HTML 5 effort had a document called HTML Design Principles, which seems like a good reference. As well, there is the old Web Architecture documents and going further back there are documents that specify Progressive Enhancement, Responsive Design, Representational State Transfer, Principle of Least Power, the Test of Independent Invention. Last but not least there are probably relevant documents to draw from the WHATWG environment.