So it's just HTML? Is there a reason (legal or otherwise) that they can't just use HTML?
As others have already said, it’s XML. This comment by jonknee back in the other Apple TV thread is a bit more detailed:
Apple TV Markup Language
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Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#12I'm a little surprised they're jumping into the literal "TV" namespace so wholeheartedly. Is the future of this ecosystem really exclusively limited to the Television? Gaming is already an explicit part of this, which undoubtedly will include VR, which is theoretically suited to Television-like content. If they do this right, the source code running on your VR gogs will mention "TV" everywhere, much like the the curr…
> Is the future of this ecosystem really exclusively limited to the Television?
Not television the broadcast medium, but television the giant Samsung device in your living room.
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#13So it's just HTML? Is there a reason (legal or otherwise) that they can't just use HTML?
I'd guess that they don't use full-blown HTML to make sure developers don't go overboard and break the UX.
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#14Another mark up language? Why? What was wrong with HTML here?
Much more specific and limited semantics. I would not expect that this is rendered with a web engine.
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#15The link should probably be the main TVML page rather than one of the template reference pages.
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/document...
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#16This is what looks like a css: https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/document...
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#17I'm a little surprised they're jumping into the literal "TV" namespace so wholeheartedly. Is the future of this ecosystem really exclusively limited to the Television? Gaming is already an explicit part of this, which undoubtedly will include VR, which is theoretically suited to Television-like content. If they do this right, the source code running on your VR gogs will mention "TV" everywhere, much like the the curr…
The iPhone name worked out pretty well, even though the phone functionality is just a small fraction of the iPhone's value proposition.
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#18I believe this XML+JS thing was the only way to write apps for the old Apple TV. Various postings on the internet seem to suggest this from way back; the old SDK was probably only ever available to a select few handpicked appletv channel partners.
What's new in the new tvOS SDK is that you can also write native apps in Objective-C/Swift, with a main() function that starts up UIKit, and with access to most of the normal iOS APIs (like OpenGL, SceneKit, etc etc).
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#19So it's just HTML? Is there a reason (legal or otherwise) that they can't just use HTML?
I have no idea how it's actually implemented, but it's quite likely TVML is powered by HTML (and WebKit).
Rather than expecting developers to use an open-spec-compliant generic toolkit, they've just built modules on top of it to both make development easier and more importantly maintain a consistent UX.
You could just have pre-defined CSS classes and do much of the same thing, but it will not be as elegant nor as controlled. Taking over the HTML and JS interpreters just allows them greater control while respecting the role each component plays (markup, interactivity, styling, etc).
Re: Apple TV Markup Language
#20If any of the authors are reading, you really ought to consider putting this into an XML namespace. It can just be a mysterious invocation to most users today, but if you need to extend this in the future (inline SVG? inline XHTML?), it'll save your bacon to have done it in the first version.