LANG: Comments on VRML Spec 1.0

Chet Murphy ([email protected])
Sun, 26 Nov 1995 13:18:08 -0700


The current VRML spec (9-Nov-95) specifies the following for field and =
node names:

>Field names start with lower case lstters, Node types start with upper =
case. The remainder of the characters may be any >printable ASCII =
(21H-7EH) except curly braces {}, square brackets [], single ' or double =
" quotes, sharp #, backslash \\ plus +, >period . or ampersand &.

In most languages, names start with an alpha character followed by zero =
or more by alpha-numeric ASCII characters ( including the '_' =
character). If I rsad this right, this specification is a superset =
allowing many of the non alpha-numeric ASCII characters to be included =
in the name (e.g., "Name/of/something" and "X^2*100/pi" would be a legal =
names). IMHO, I think that allowing non alpha-numeric characters in =
field and node names could cause problems in the future. I prefer that =
field and node names be limited to alpha-numeric characters plus a =
limited number of other characters such as the '_'.=20

BTW: The 1.0 release of QV limits field names to alpha-numeric =
characters plus the '_'. Node names follow the spec.

--Chet Murphy
ModelWorks Software
[email protected]


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