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RE: [x3d-contributors] Re: geometry first, MathML, CAD, etc
- From: "Paul Fishwick" <fishwick@c...>
- To: "Jean-Marc Vanel" <jmvanel@f...>, <xml-dev@x...>, <x3d-contributors@w...>, "Frederic ABIVEN" <Frederic.ABIVEN@t...>, "Patrick Laug" <Patrick.Laug@i...>, "Amine Hassim" <Amine.Hassim@i...>, "Jean Marc VANEL" <jean-marc_vanel@e...>
- Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 10:22:33 -0500
Dear
Jean-Marc:
I find myself agreeing with you but am seeking
technical alternatives. Let's
put
X3D on the table and analyze it. The next questions that both of us
would
raise
are:
1) What is wrong with it?
2) What explicitly would we change in
X3D?
I still am hoping that there exist evolutionary
methods that will allow X3D and all of
the
other XML implementations to co-exist and co-operate. This hope may not
be
justified, but I am ever the optimist (for some unknown
reason). Namespaces are
proposed as something we should consider to aid in
bridging gaps.
Len has made some really valuable suggestions,
and I am fascinated with the
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) that he referred me to
in another email. My feeling
is
that we are just at the beginning of this revolution. The revolution is not to
immediately cause everything to be suddenly integrated.
Instead, I see it as a
revolution to surface semantics in a human-readable and
highly accessible form (through
XML).
It is a bit like learning to speak for the first time; everyone is speaking and
saying
"here
is how I code the structure of my part of the world". The difference, now, is
that
these
structures will use the same lingua franca (XML). Currently, they do
not:
IGES,
STEP, DXF, OBJ, COB ... add the hundreds of others that
exist.
-paul
Paul Fishwick wrote :
When Henry Ford built his first automobile,my guess is that he had to hand-construct many of
the components since theredid not
exist a supply-chain for carburetors, brakes, wheels and so forth. As
timeprogressed, these supply-chains
multiplied in what might be called a Darwinianor Capitalistic evolution---thus, providing ways to
make automobiles whosecomponents are
now "outsourced" to other companies, forming a huge tree or
graphof
industrialization. X3D is
similar. There has to be a seed, or coherent entity where we
begin. The seed, VRML, has existed for years,
and has not met the success of the T model ! The current X3D seems merely a
word-for-word translation of VRML97 in old XML monolythic DTD style. It's more
than time to have a modular state of the art XML VR vocabulary, with all the
facilities of XML Namespaces, XML Schema, and possibly XSLT, SMIL, etc.
It's also more than time to search other partners for the 3D geometry
subset outside of the video circle, notably CAD and scientists involved in
numerical simulations, and biological descriptions.
Think of the advantages of being able to import directly shapes from
manufacturing industry, and use them in animations!
Also there is a big oportunity to have skilled computer scientists from the
numerical simulations domain join the design process. They are shure, like I
am, discouraged by the current poor design of VRML, and its too narrow scope.
this is similar to Ford acquiring the company thatmakes carburetors and integrating it within his own
company. I have another comparison that
applies better, sadly. The situation with VRML/X3D is like if the whole car
was moulded in one single piece. As a positive example, think of
XSL-formatting and XSLT (transforms). In the begining, they were together, but
soon enough, the designers realized that it has a huge usefullness to make
transforms without the formatting aspect. And now we have a good W3C
recommandation for XSLT, with several good implementations, that is much more
frequently used (e. g. by current X3D implementation) than XSL-formatting .
The analogy is strong with our domain: VR's core is 3D geometry, and it has a
much larger usefullness than VR. And a modular design can create synergies
with other domains and industries. If you don't do this now, X3D will never
get big.
--
<person>
<first_name>Jean-Marc</first_name>
<name>Vanel</name>
<project>Worlwide Botanical
Knowledge Base -
making botany available on
Internet
<a href="http://wwbota.free.fr/" >site</a>
</project>
<homePage>http://jmvanel.free.fr/</homePage>
<a href="mailto:jmvanel@f...">mail (eventually
put "wwbota" in subject to route your mail in relevant folder)</a>
</person>
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