ticker-ng

[David Arnold]

sometime in the late 90's, i wrote this proposal for a next-generation
tickertape.  it appears to be post-HTML, but pre-XML, which dates it
somewhere in there :-)

i thought i might as well share it ...

    ticker-ng
    
    ticker next generation is a derivative of the various tickertape
    programs developed following the original Python Tickertape.  it
    alters the model substantially, moving from a fixed format message
    to a variable format controlled by a markup language.
    
    <tml>
      <a href="http://www.slashdot.org">
        <embed type="text/plain" src="user">
        says: what about those <i>lamers?</i>
        <embed type="image/gif" src="image1">
        <blink>hey?!</blink>
      </a>
    </tml>
    
    the glyph that appears and is scrolled is described by a
    subscription.  it refers to fields of the notification using the
    <embed> tag.

just an annotation here, since this was really a description relying
on a context not present (ie. my brain :-) the markup is a template,
used to render notifications received because they match an associated
subscription.  so ticker 1.3 messages would have a template like

  <tml>
    <embed type="text/plain" src="TICKERTAPE">:
    <embed type="text/plain" src="USER">:
    <embed type="text/plain" src="TICKERTEXT">
  </tml>

or something like that.

    the scroller understands a limited set of MIME types which may be
    extended by plug-ins.  like HTML, any tag which is not understood
    will be ignored by the ticker.
    
    an embedded object of type "text/x-tml" allows the notification to
    extend the markup (the content is included inline before further
    interpretation).
    
    on receiving a notification, the ticker program interprets the markup
    string, and generates a pixmap.  the pixmap may have multiple areas
    sensitive to clicks (anchors).  it is scrolled until removed.
    
    subscriptions can refer to any field of the event, in any format:
    there is no longer the need to extend ticker to understand different
    event types, nor to artificially munge events into a ticker format.
    
    the <embed> tag may also have a "default" attribute, used when the
    event does not have a field of the required name.

    
this next bit is a little unclear.  i *think* what this example meant
was that you could create "hotspots" in the scrolling glyphs the would
generate a reply -- the type is a MIME object that is created, with
content as specified, and then handed to the system's MIME object
interpreter, which i think this example presumes is a tickertape
message editor.  

    in addition to href anchors, a direct link is allowed, like
    
      <a type="x-ticker/chat" content="TICKERTAPE:<embed src=\"TICKERTAPE\">">
    
    or something like that

it's not important, although if anyone were ever to implement
something like this, i think this might be a more general mechanism
than "href", which might be good.


anyway -- hope someone finds this interesting, or even useful :-)





d