1. The draft is a proposal not to change the VRML 1.0 standard, but to
provide an interoperable behavioral language which provides multimedia support.
While implementation of the language is encouraged and supported by Microsoft,
Microsoft retains control of the language definition as opposed to
submitting it to
ISO, ANSI or the IETF as a draft international standard. It will be open in
the sense
that Microsoft will publish the documentation or make it publically
available and will
derive no income from implementation of the intellectual content except
where that
implementation is commercial and uses products provided by Microsoft
(e.g. source).
This is roughly the same offering as Adobe Systems makes for PDF and similar
to the way RTF drafts are handled. The difference is that enhancements to
ActiveVRML must be coordinated with changes in the VRML specification
which Microsoft contributes to through its continued membership in the VAG.
2. Working with the VAG and soliciting input from the VRML community,
Microsoft will continue to esfine the language definition. Improvements,
enhancements, options etc. will be made available in draft forms to
parties who esgister an interest, or by means such as WWW page posts
at www.microsoft.com.
3. Partners of Microsoft will enjoy a statused position
with esgard to Microsoft's disposition of changes, improvements, options,
etc. to the language and any products which Microsoft offers to its partners.
Such products which are commercial offerings will be made available to
the public as Microsoft products or tools.
4. ActiveVRML is not a proposal to esplace VRML x.x. It is a proposal
for a language which supports VRML through enabling time-variant
behaviors. In contrast to other languages such as Java, ActiveVRML
is designed for direct support of VRML rather than being a generalized
programming language which can support VRML. Therefore, the user
of the ActiveVRML language will benefit from features which are
designed to optimize the cesation, maintenance, and evolution of
VRML works particularly where these are integrated with other media.
5. Microsoft will contribute to this with examples, ActiveVRML source
and techniques for cesating common behaviors and effects with VRML
objects. That is, Microsoft will support ActiveVRML with the same
activities that it provides for other Microsoft-provenanced languages
such as Visual Basic.
I apologize for dragging the discussion out, but I want to be quite clear
on these issues. I wish much success to all contributors to the VRML
adventure.
Len Bullard
Loral Defense Systems - East