1. About SMIL 2.0

Editors

Aaron Cohen (aaron.m.cohen@intel.com), Intel

Thierry Michel (tmichel@w3.org), W3C

1.1 Introduction

This document specifies the second version of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL, pronounced "smile"). SMIL 2.0 has the following two design goals:

• Define an XML-based language that allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. Using SMIL 2.0, an author can describe the temporal behavior of a multimedia presentation, associate hyperlinks with media objects and describe the layout of the presentation on a screen.
• Allow reusing of SMIL 2.0 syntax and semantics in other XML-based languages, in particular those who need to represent timing and synchronization. For example, SMIL 2.0 components are used for integrating timing into XHTML [XHTML10] and into SVG [SVG].

SMIL 2.0 is defined as a set of markup modules, which define the semantics and an XML syntax for certain areas of SMIL functionality.

1.1.1 Relation to SMIL 1.0

SMIL 2.0 deprecates a small amount of SMIL 1.0 syntax in favor of more DOM friendly syntax. Most notable is the change from hyphenated attribute names to mixed case (camel case) attribute names, e.g., clipBegin is introduced in favor of clip-begin. The SMIL 2.0 modules do not require support for these SMIL 1.0 attributes so that integration applications are not burdened with them. SMIL document players, those applications that support playback of "application/smil" documents, and host language conformant document profiles must support the deprecated SMIL 1.0 attribute names as well as the new SMIL 2.0 names.

1.1.2 Content of this Recommendation

This Recommendation is structured as a set of sections, each defining one or more modules:

• Section 2 is an overview of SMIL 2.0 modularization and the individual modules, and presents conformance criteria.
• Section 3 defines the declarative SMIL 2.0 Animation Modules.
• Section 4 presents the SMIL 2.0 Content Control Modules.
• Section 5 describes the SMIL 2.0 Layout Modules.
• Section 6 defines the SMIL 2.0  Linking Modules.
• Section 7 presents the SMIL 2.0  Media Object Modules.
• Section 8 defines the SMIL 2.0  Metainformation Module.
• Section 9 defines the SMIL 2.0 Structure Module.
• Section 10 defines the SMIL 2.0 Timing and Synchronization Modules.
• Section 11 defines the SMIL 2.0 Time Manipulations Module.
• Section 12 presents the SMIL 2.0 Transition effects Modules.

This Recommendation also defines two profiles that are built using the above SMIL 2.0 modules:

• Section 13 defines the SMIL 2.0 Language Profile.
• Section 14 describes the SMIL 2.0 Basic Profile and Scalability Framework.

The XHTML+SMIL Profile that appeared in Working Drafts of this Recommendation is published separately, and is not part of the SMIL 2.0 Recommendation. However, one of the implementations used to validate SMIL 2.0 was based on the XHTML+SMIL Profile. All XHTML+SMIL examples in this Recommendation conform to the Profile as of the Working Draft of 06 August 2001. The latest version of this document is also available, see [XHTML+SMIL].

1.2 Acknowledgements

This document has been prepared by the Synchronized Multimedia Working Group (SYMM-WG) of the World Wide Web Consortium. The WG included the following individuals:

Hanan Rosenthal, Canon - Jin Yu, Compaq - Pietro Marchisio, CSELT - Lynda Hardman, CWI - Jacco van Ossenbruggen, CWI - Lloyd Rutledge, CWI - Olivier Avaro, France Telecom - Ted Wugofski, Gateway (Invited Expert) - Masayuki Hiyama, Glocomm - Keisuke Kamimura, Glocomm - Michelle Y. Kim, IBM - Steve Wood, IBM - Jeff Boston, IBM - Nabil Layaïda, INRIA - Muriel Jourdan, INRIA - Aaron Cohen, Intel - Wayne Carr, Intel - Marcel Wong, Ericsson - Ken Day, Macromedia - Daniel Weber, Panasonic - Patrick Schmitz, Microsoft - Debbie Newman, Microsoft - Pablo Fernicola, Microsoft - Aaron Patterson, Microsoft - Kevin Gallo, Microsoft - Paul David, Microsoft - Don Cone, Netscape/AOL - Wo Chang, NIST - Didier Chanut, Nokia - Antti Koivisto, Nokia - Roberto Castagno, Nokia - Jack Jansen, Oratrix - Sjoerd Mullender, Oratrix - Dick Bulterman, Oratrix - Kenichi Kubota, Panasonic - Warner ten Kate, Philips - Ramon Clout, Philips - Jeff Ayars, RealNetworks - Erik Hodge, RealNetworks - Rob Lanphier, RealNetworks - Bridie Saccocio, RealNetworks - Eric Hyche, RealNetworks - Robin Haglund, RealNetworks - Geoff Freed, WGBH - Philipp Hoschka, W3C - Philippe Le Hégaret, W3C - Thierry Michel, W3C.