Re: about public browsers etc.

Claude L. Bullard ([email protected])
Mon, 15 May 1995 16:26:00 -0400


[Gavin Bell]

| A text VRML renderer might actually be quite useful....

And now you are well on your way (like many hypermedia systems)
to reinventing the entire windows interface complete with balloon
help. Fascinating. "Once more around the Moebus, Jeeves!"

Descriptors are a generally good idea where they have been used but
they fit better in resource files.

If the features of VRML x.x are going to subsume the other "component"
domains, seriously consider a "features declaration" node in your
language that lets an app determine what it has to do prior to processing
any instance of a file. Add to that a NOTATION declaration that lets
it know how many and what type helper apps it will need so that those who will
be using something other than W3C-approved notations can do so.
Then, add a storage manager declaration that lets the receiving
system know what kind of record boundaries its should process, what
"it thinks" a byte a.k.a octet is, etc.

OTH, a "yet more meta than thou" notation that can include VRML as
a component is a better solution. Let it handle encryption flags, alternative
representations, etc.

Len Bullard