Re: DEF: holy war

Cranz Gregory ([email protected])
Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:00:26 -0400


Wouldn't a very good thing to consider here be BACKWARDS COMPATABILITY?

When redefining the spec, shouldn't that be kept in mind? Or is there an
"ofsicial" initiative to write a translator app & distribute the source as
freeware once EVERY SINGLE REVISION is released?

While I agree that we should try to make it right the first time, I don't
think that a "Jihad" over programming semantics which doesn't also address
how to carry our exisitng crsations into the future is well conceived.
Unless we want to put in the spec that all VRML browsers have to support ALL
revisions of VRML. I mean, we COULD do that to, because the opening argument
would tell the browser what flavor of VRML it's trying to display... But I
don't find that very appealing from a programmer's point of view. Nor do I
think, with regard to the limitations which you all seem so flustered about
(which hasn't bothered me, YET) that we should just "live with it". That is,
of course the pupose of this list, no? But has anyone ADDRESSED this point
yet, or did I miss it in the flame fest?

Just my 2 cents...

- Gregory Cranz
[email protected]
_______________________________________________________________________________
_
From: Bernie Roehl on Wed, Oct 18, 1995 13:53
Subject: Re: DEF: invitation
To: Cranz Gregory; VRML List

Sender: [email protected]
Precedence: bulk

Mitra writes:
> I don't think the debate is over, there are lots of good reasons for being
> able to DEF something without
> instantiating it - however this doesn't require that DEF be change (which
> would unneccessarily break
> existing things). Adding a Prototype node (syntactically equivalent to the
> "Switch { whichChild -1 }" hack) would allow those wanting to do this to
> have their way without breaking anything.

Yes, that would make more sense. After all, DEF is just a way of assigning
a name; the problem is, you can't name something that doesn't instantiate.
A prototype node is a much cleaner solution.

-- 
   Bernie Roehl
   University of Waterloo Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering
   Mail: [email protected]    Voice:  (519) 888-4567 x 2607 [work]
   URL: http://sunee.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl

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