Re: TECH - e-mail parsebot & compression

Brian Behlendorf ([email protected])
Sun, 9 Apr 1995 20:15:02 -0800 (PST)


On Fri, 7 Apr 1995, Scott Virt Theme Parks wrote:
> Looking over the sdsc vrml stuff and based on previous thinking,
> here's a couple of IDuhs:
>
> 1) Creation of an e-mail parsing service, whereby people getting
> started with VRML could e-mail VRML code to an e-mail address
> (yes, this could also be done through WWW cgi), whereupon it
> would be parsed or whatever, with the result e-mailed back to
> the submitter. Input could be limited to files of a small length.
>
> I think this could help encourage the development of VRML,
> particularly by people just getting started (read yours truly
> or even most of us).

If someone could create a simple applet based on QvLib to do this, we'd
be happy to host it, perhaps as a CGI script in a web client instead of
just email. Extra credit for something that creates GIF's of the
resulting scene! :)

> 2) compression .wrl's. Looking at the example files at sdsc,
> they are really huge. I know in the Webforce demo SGI says
> bandwidth won't be a problem, but some of the examples are
> much larger than I'd ever think of downloading through WWW.

We've talked about compression before, and I think everyone was happy
with the answer that it's a MIME and transport issue and doesn't need to
be dealt with in the VRML spec - it is an issue for VRML browsers, but if
those browsers are using HTTP to fetch data to build scenes then HTTP
specifications address compression (Content-Encoding:) that the VRML
browser should be bound to. If the VRML browser is configured as just a
helper application to a helper application, then the Web browser should
do the compression itself before handing it off.

Brian

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