Radians are not going anywhere from this api or any other.
I do think it is fair to represent angles in degrees to the user, even people
who is comfortable with radians would tell somebody (the user) to rotate the
object 60 degrees, using a field of view of 45 degrees and so on.
Converting to/from radians is a multiplication away, not a problem (unless you
would like to convert to/from minutes and seconds, slightly more work).
Julian wrote:
> Hugh,
>
> >> Radians may have nice mathematical properties, but these are
> >> only of interest to ... mathematicians. New programmers,
> >> experienced programmers, 3D artists, architects, geographers,
> >> etc all think in degrees.
>
> any 3D programming is about math! if you try to keep the math out of your
> program, you will end up playing with a building kit. you will always have
> to depend on the functionality shipped with your 3D API, and never will you
> be able to extend the predefined objects and behaviours by your own.
>
> new programmers and geographers might think in degrees, but experienced
> programmers don't, and the newbies would do well trying to understand how a
> circle works and how radians relate to it.
>
> why keep the math away from your students? only if they understand how the
> scene is rendered (in mathematical terms), how the various elements of a 3D
> application work (like projection, lighting, collision, picking, shadows
> etc), they can get the most out of it.
>
> understanding what's going on behind the scenes is crucial for any
> programming, IMHO. certainly you can get by just calling the methods, but
> that way you remain slave to the API.
>
> if you don't even want your students to get involved with basic math like
> radians, you should teach them how to use Bryce, not how to work with
> Java3D.
>
> -- julian
>
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