xml-dev - Re: geometry first, MathML, CAD, etc

[Jean-Marc Vanel <jmvanel@free.fr>]

Paul Fishwick wrote :
> When
> Henry Ford built his first automobile,my
> guess is that he had to hand-construct many of the components since theredid
> not exist a supply-chain for carburetors, brakes, wheels and so forth.
> As timeprogressed, these supply-chains
> multiplied in what might be called a Darwinianor
> Capitalistic evolution---thus, providing ways to make automobiles whosecomponents
> are now "outsourced" to other companies, forming a huge tree or graphof
> industrialization.   X3D
> is similar. There has to be a seed, or coherent entity where we begin.
The seed, VRML, has existed for years, and has not met the success of the
T model ! The current X3D seems merely a word-for-word translation of VRML97
in old XML monolythic DTD style. It's more than time to have a modular
state of the art XML VR vocabulary, with all the facilities of XML Namespaces,
XML Schema, and possibly XSLT, SMIL, etc.

 It's also more than time to search other partners for the 3D geometry subset outside of the video circle, notably CAD and scientists involved in numerical simulations, and biological descriptions.

Think of the advantages of being able to import directly shapes from manufacturing industry, and use them in animations!

Also there is a big oportunity to have skilled computer scientists from the numerical simulations domain join the design process. They are shure, like I am, discouraged by the current poor design of VRML, and its too narrow scope.

> this
> is similar to Ford acquiring the company thatmakes
> carburetors and integrating it within his own company.
I have another comparison that applies better, sadly. The situation with
VRML/X3D is like if the whole car was moulded in one single piece. As a
positive example, think of XSL-formatting and XSLT (transforms). In the
begining, they were together, but soon enough, the designers realized that
it has a huge usefullness to make transforms without the formatting aspect.
And now we have a good W3C recommandation for XSLT, with several good implementations,
that is much more frequently used (e. g. by current X3D implementation)
than XSL-formatting . The analogy is strong with our domain: VR's core
is 3D geometry, and it has a much larger usefullness than VR. And a modular
design can create synergies with other domains and industries. If you don't
do this now, X3D will never get big.

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