“sprice” wrote:
As I understand [1], the BBC uses their HTML5 framework TAL[2] to deploy their iPlayer Roku app.
I’ve not downloaded TAL, but if you look at the documentation – particularly the application structure – it looks like there’s no actual HTML. I may be wrong, but from the documentation alone, TAL looks a little like GWT: a JavaScript library that builds the UI using widget classes (a la GTK, Swing, Qt…) without any declarative language, with CSS for basic styling. If there’s any declarative stuff going on, it’s probably in the form of JSON, rather than HTML.
So TAL on Roku may be nothing more than a JavaScript engine and a small library of widgets that conform to a generic API; on a webkit/browser platform the TAL widgets would be rendered using HTML, and on Roku they would be drawn using native graphics commands.
The 2D APIs make it possible to roll your own GUI in Brightscript, I should think you would be able to create a much nicer user interface than the BBC iPlayer, using Brightscript, with the 2D API components.
If you are in UK, Check out the NowTV channel - all Brightscript, all 2D APIs.