authoring tools

Nathan J. Strange ([email protected])
Fri, 2 Jun 95 19:49:18 EST


> >
> > On Jun 2, 2:54pm, Mark Waks wrote:
> >
> > This direction is interesting, but I think the motivation for doing
> > it needs to be examined. VRML is not supposed to be an authoring
> > language or a programming language. It is primarily a data format.
> > Making life easier for people to hand-edit VRML files should not
> > be a priority.
> >
> > Adding parameterized meta-objects (like the IceCreamCone) to VRML
> > will make parsers bigger and slower. Authors who create scenes
> > with interactive graphical programs (i.e., the right way :-> )
> > will never see any advantage caused by this addition. Neither will
> > anyone browsing worlds. So why add it (or other programming-language-
> > like features) to the language?
>
> Doing this will make .wrl files smaller, and will allow the creation
> of flexable object libraries that can be put on a CD-ROM..
>
> An authoring tool could allow the user to pull up a
> library of objects and enter in the parameters through a GUI
> like AutoCAD does... Or even allow users to create "reusable" classes
>
> I think an authoring tool could implement something like this,
> how is up to the authoring tool authors, but I am positive that
> it could be done..
>
> I could draw my icecreamcone... use a tool to name it, and then
> use another tool to label its primitives... I could click on
> each primitive (the sphere and the cone) and give each one a label...
>
> I could later insert a named object (icreamcone) and then the
> authoring tool would ask me for the parameters....
>
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