Re: late draft of the 1.0 Clarifications

Mitra ([email protected])
Sat, 25 Nov 1995 17:58:13 -0800

At 10:06 AM 11/25/95, Bernie Roehl wrote:
>> GIF and PNG formats are recommended, but not required. JPEG is required.
>> GIF is recommended because it is widely used, it is not required - because
>> to do so would require license fees payable to Unisys
>
>Okay, but "recommending" the use of a format that requires the payment
>of royalties just doesn't sit well with me. Perhaps change the wording to
>something not quite as strong? Something like JPEG required, PNG
>recommended, GIF also commonly supported.
>
>I really think it's important to steer world-builders *away* from the use
>of GIF so that browser-implementers aren't forced to support it (and
>therefore pay royalties).

I am as annoyed as anyone by submarine-patents, the common wisdom in
communications has always
been "Be conservative in what you output, liberal in what you accept",
which means BROWSER writers
should support GIF's for now, but authors shouldn't use them. Personally I
expect a lot of browsers to support GIFs until Unisys starts enforcing
their patent and then dropping it like a hot-potato. The terms really are
unreasonable!

>> >* The suggestion of a naming convention for custom nodes and fields didn't
>> > seem to make it into the spec; any reason why not? It seemed like a good
>> > idea.
>> Its in 1.1 - to put it in 1.0 would change the spec, rather than clarify it.
>Does it actually *change* the spec? It's just sdvice, after all.

Its in 1.1 anyway, I'd be happy to extract it and post it seperately if
anyone wants it.

>> >* Switch nodes were supposed to treat their children as Separators, and
>> > should not select more than one of their children.
>>
>> No - that's a 1.1 change under debate, Switches are allowed to switch
>> between materials, and select all of them in 1.0.
>
>Hmm... I suspect that the reasons for eliminating "leaky" nodes are still
>valid.

I happen to agree with you - but there is significant debate about it, I'll
leave Gavin to put the "pro-leakage" argument.

- Mitra

=================================================================
Mitra
[email protected] voice: (415)826-2499 fax: (415)826-4423
<http://earth.path.net/mitra>

Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

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