Re: Requirements

David Cake ([email protected])
Wed, 22 Jun 1994 17:10:27 +0800


>(I think we've also teased out a few other requirements over the
>course of the discussion, which I meantioned the other day: we're
>mainly looking for an object-description language;it should allow
>good hierarchical structuring and inheritance;
I think that the structure of the data should be decided with
object orientation in mind. I.e. while I do not think that object oriented
languages should be required, it would be a good idea if we come up with
some sort of API to not be able to directly change data structure, but make
calls to wrapper functions that change them. Besides the current vogue for
OO languages (OODLs for the truly hip) I think we should keep an eye for
the reasonably short term future, where I think Object databases and ORB
sytems, like every next generation operating system seems to be planning,
would make a sound basis for fast VRML servers.

>it should be easily
>subsettable so we can kick off quickly; it should be straightforward
>to extend. And there are some things that aren't requirements, but
>plusses: a simple, easy-to-parse syntax, and existing tools...)
>
It should also be easily subsettable and extendable becauses there are lots
of things that probably should be part of the standard, but are unfeasible
right now because of bandwidth. Rather than ignore them, just leave a few
stubs in the syntax, that can be filled in when people feel the need.
Pesonally I think that the immediate next step after a standard is
available is to make available some portable code to aid implementations.
Yacc grammars, maybe? Maybe a parser that calls a minimal set of graphics
calls, so that implementors need only to provide fill in a set of graphics
functions, implement a few standard browser calls in UI of choice, and
networking.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of things here.
I'll just briefly introduce myself. My name is David Cake, I am a
computer science/ cognitive science postgrad, though not in an area that
has anything to do with any of this. Hello all, and welcome.

> -- Justin
Cheers
David Cake