Let me clarify my previous message (it was intentionally short to avoid flaming).
The problem seems to have arisen from USAGE, not from the SPEC. This is similar
to some work I was involved with using TIFF a few years back. In that case, the
color table in the SPEC clearly stated that color table values would be from
0 to 65335 - however, most programmers used only 0 to 255. This meant that
TIFF file readers had to be smart enough to scan all the color table values to
see if they needed to be scaled!
In VRML, the problem increases slightly in that the ground plane may
be very important to moving around in the space; or important to agent software
that expects the ground to be on a specific place. A simple rotation of the
world will work only for viewing not for virtual vehicles and simulation code
that assume where the ground is.
I have been working with VR386 on the PC for 18 months, about half of my worlds
are Z elavated and the others use the normal right handed coord system. At this
point it is not a matter for committee discussion or arguement; Y up is the way
to go in the spec. HOWEVER, we can possibly create TAGS or FILTERS to help
people straighten out their worlds.
Chuck Kosta
Center for Products and Enterprise
UMass Lowell