SMIL: Mixing Media With Ease

Web developers are perpetually looking for a standards-based solution, with wide industry support, that is as easy to edit and create as HTML. SMIL 1.0 has been a good step in this direction. SMIL (www.w3.org/AudioVideo)is an XML-based language that allows developers to mix media types and synchronize them. And while it may seem complicated, SMIL is fairly easy, particularly if you're familiar with HTML and the basics of JavaScript.Even though SMIL is an open specification, users will need a special player to view the SMIL content you create. Three of the more popular viewers include GRiNS, QuickTime and the RealPlayer G2. GRiNS (GRaphical iNterface to SMIL) runs on several operating systems and is the closest to the World Wide Consortium standard. QuickTime is fairly good in version 5, but very little SMIL content has been developed on that platform. Real has been SMIL's staunchest supporter, and we will concentrate on that implementation in this article. It is interesting to note who is not supporting the SMIL 1.0 standard. Netscape, Microsoft and Macromedia have all decided to withhold support from this standard, although Microsoft and Macromedia are helping to work on the SMIL 2.0 specification.Microsoft is supporting HTML+TIME ( http://msdn. microsoft.com/workshop/Author/behaviors/html time.asp ). This standard forms the basis of SMIL 2.0 and extends SMIL into the Web browser. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 supports many of the SMIL 2.0 draft modules, including Timing and Synchronization, BasicAnimation, SplineAnimation, BasicMedia, MediaClipping, and BasicContentControl.