The term `Tracks`

[iherman]

I am not sure I like the term "Tracks"; some of the examples, like using tracks to assign default properties to, e.g., texts, does not sound right to me for the generic term of 'tracks'.

Good topic for bikeshedding :-)

[marisademeglio]

Yes, the bikeshed is looking great already!

Defining properties on a track gives you a place to set high-level defaults, for example

• "always highlight this text
• "pan the sound effects track to the left"
• "play the background music at 50% volume"
• and more

track is similar to SMIL region except that:

• there's no visual rendering space defined
• you can have a defaultSrc on a track (not required but often handy)
• a track has a trackType indicating its purpose
• a media object type can be automatically assigned to a track via defaultFor (again, not required but very useful)

The reason for not re-using region was that we felt our tracks were different enough, and if you start reading the SMIL section on region, it's easy to walk away with the impression that it always includes a visual definition.

That said, do any other words stand out as better candidates than track?

[iherman]

The reason for not re-using region was that we felt our tracks were different enough, and if you start reading the SMIL section on region, it's easy to walk away with the impression that it always includes a visual definition.

Big +1 for not using region!

That said, do any other words stand out as better candidates than track?

Wow. Expecting a non-native Anglo-Saxon speaker to come up with a good alternative? :-)

I looked at the Webster which includes a number of synonyms, but nothing really stuck, though I was considering 'clue', or 'hint'...

Separately from Webster I was also wondering about 'plan'.

Naming is difficult:-)

[marisademeglio]

@larscwallin and I talked about this today and we have decided to stick with "track" and also to add some text to the explainer about how we see tracks affording "mixing" of different media streams, perhaps with an analogy to multitrack audio applications, to really help illustrate the concept.

[iherman]

Closing the issue