Re: [rtcweb] Proposed Plan for Usage of SDP and RTP - Lower level API minus SDP

[Silvia Pfeiffer <[e-mail]>]

On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 5:51 AM, Mary Barnes <[e-mail]>wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Eric Rescorla <[e-mail]> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Mary Barnes <[e-mail]>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:43 AM, Martin Thomson
> >> <[e-mail]> wrote:
> >> > Obviously I (and my employer) agree with these sentiments
> >> > wholeheartedly.  Both Robin and Hadriel.
> >> >
> >> > That doesn't change the fact that a number of people are highly
> >> > motivated to protect their investment in SDP offer/answer.  For those
> >> > people, the pain that causes everyone else is clearly far less
> >> > important than the pain they feel at this moment.  So here we are.
> >>
> >> [MB] I originally thought that either approach could work.  I did see
> >> the value that folks saw in using SDP offer/answer. But after sitting
> >> through the interim meeting last month, I am very much of the mindset
> >> that using SDP O/A is a bad idea.   I think many of us thought that
> >> using the SDP blob would help with interoperability with "legacy" SIP
> >> endpoints.  I don't see that now at all.  I think we will end up with
> >> a very fragile solution that will be very difficult to extend/modify
> >> later if we continue down the SDP O/A path.
> >> [/MB]
> >>
> >
> > Hasn't the WG already been asked this question not once but
> > twice.
> [MB] Yes.  And, some of us have changed our positions based upon the
> challenges that the group is facing in getting the current approach
> specified and agreed.  I don't disagree that it is not a good thing
> that this is being discussed yet again.  [/MB]
>

[Gotta love the triple negation!]

Why can't we have it both ways?

Maintain the current way to get the raw SDP using createOffer, but then
provide an interface to change that offer before setLocalDescription.

Even CISCO provides such an API:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/sip_tn/8_5_1/4-sdp_api.html
(I think we can do a better one than this, but it's a reference point).

Cheers,
Silvia.