The ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message Set allows
applications to easily share each other's multimedia functionality.
Using the ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message Set, multimedia
applications can communicate with each other in a transparent manner,
both locally and over networks, regardless of data formats, compression
technology, and other technical issues which has previously confined
the use of this technology.
Why the ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message
Set was Developed |
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While a few vendors have established inter-operability alliances,
the range of possible end-user solutions as been restricted. The
ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message Set allows any application
to transparently share a set of multimedia functions with any other
application.
Applications that use these simple protocols can quickly and
easily create a ToolTalk interface to an array of multimedia services
without concern for a particular service provider. Entire groups
of applications can now plug-and-play together, integrating sound,
video, graphics, telephony, and other media sources into new and
exciting applications. The term plug-and-play means that any tool
can be replaced by any other tool that follows the same protocol.
That is, any tool that follows a given ToolTalk protocol can be
placed (plugged) into your computing environment and will perform
(play) those functions indicated by the protocol. Tools can be mixed
and matched, without modification and without having any specific
built-in knowledge of each other. For example, you could create
a word processing application that integrates a piece of video into
a composition and have the video played by another application.
The ToolTalk Document and Media Exchange Message Set is an
efficient set of generic message definitions that provide media
control and data exchange. The protocol consists of editor messages
for media players, editors, and users.
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