RE: [xml-dev] Too much power? was RE: [xml-dev] 2007 Predictions

["Len Bullard" <cbullard@hiwaay.net>]

Good.  You'll need them.

Build an open source engine for XML-encoded real-time 3D graphics.  It must
support real-time routing of events in a cascade, nested transformations,
full rich color rendering and if implemented by more than one source, must
render precisely the same on ALL platforms.  It needs an API that supports
real time communications and authoring across the Internet and can support
multi-user modes of operation without detectable latency (note:  VOIP + 3D
has a way of outing cheats here).

Oh, you need a 24 fps minimum performance at full screen.  I won't bother
you with the resolution issues, and btw, you'll have an average of 256 to
512k RAM to allot to your application and the HTML framework plus all of the
other objects of the 'operating system within the operating system'.  Slow
motherboards and cheap graphics cards are part of the challenge too.  We
won't even discuss real-time 3D sound yet.

Still look easy?

The difficulty has been underestimated more than once.  So what we get are
closed box java streaming solutions, patents pending, and closed server side
systems.  No HTML browser required.  Or we get HTML plugins with a
considerable interoperability gap among the platforms.  Or we get a small
handful of robust implementations that run ok in the browser, are
outstanding when running standalone, but have teams with decades of
experience writing them.  Oddly enough, the VRML Cybertown installation was
running on two Dells and had as many as 150 avatars in a room
simultaneously.  SL maxes out at about 64 in a room but it supports in-world
building.  Sorry, no private client-side building allowed.  That's soooo
90s.

The power required is required and the server farms aren't eco-friendly.  It
helps if you give the client something to do but there is no barrier to
competitors if you do that and you can't indemnify the IP of the authors,
but you can't anyway.  See CopyBot. IP is not very valuable if you can't
reuse the product anywhere else so it's a content flytrap but hey, the
XMLers love it because they think it is good for the web.

There are applications for the Internet which aren't made easier by HTML
frameworks and they are intensely competitive.  XML made some data reuse
easier but in more cases than not, the parsers are hardwired and
hand-rolled, don't rely on the browser framework, and don't use XML Schemas
except for the authoring tools.  They can interoperate with the web browser
but the utility of that is what is in question, not the ability.

That aside, they are a good use case for Relax.

That isn't attitude.  That's virtual reality.  You can't smug your way past
it and you can't fake a solution. The wine won't help either.  The sun will.
You'll learn about shadows and why they are deuce expensive in an
environment where things move in 4 dimensions arbitrarily.

The W3C?  Didn't even try.  They left it to the experts.

len


From: david.lyon@preisshare.net [mailto:david.lyon@preisshare.net] 

3D graphics are not as hard as they look. And there seem to be good  
experts scattered around the world to help out if need be.

> Understand our problem?  To bend to your rules, we have to commit
commercial
> suicide while you jabber and Raph the Kos, Clay the Shirk, Rosey Phil
laugh.

oh Len.... sounds like you're having an attitude today.