Hello FIRST POINT: could someone PLEASE add a script to the mail-server so every message posted on the list has the reply-address set to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ?
About half the time people forget setting the reply-address to the list and a lot of reply's probably get lost that way. Setting the reply-address is not that complicated, most mail-list-servers do it without any problems. > Do you suppose JAVA3D-INTEREST will > be the hub for hacking information? Do you suppose > special-interest hack groups will form up on > SourceForge? IMHO it's up to sun to guide the whole thing. They need to make sure the patches work on all platforms, they need to form some sort of main-standart-version. If sun just postes the code and drops the project it will end in a very incompatible, instable and unusable version mess. If that starts happening people will/should�move to JOPL (not so bad for sun, very bad for the developers). Do you remember the Mircosoft-1.1.X-JVM's ? Now guess how long J3D can/will survive in such a case. > Is there anything we > should be discussing here that could help the > developer community later? Post requests for USEFULL changes. Support the general stuff thats helps a lot of people. A bone-person-animating-API is a fine thing, but it is not going to be used in lot of projects and it generates a lot of work in the porting/ maintance-department. But working 3D-sound would be great. It can be used in a lot of projects. It can't be done in pure java. The bones can be done later. Just imagine a perfect 3D-World with perfect avartars moving soomthly with correct bone-structure and muscles and everything ... but without sound. Doesn't make sense. Trying to add everything at once is possible, it can be done (see linux-kernel). But in most cases it will lead to half-finished software, mixups and incompatible versions. Let's concentrate on a few useful changes. Someone has to filter, sort and manage the requests. And that instance has to be neutral and must use commen sense. Someone from sun would be optimal. (btw.: i don't want to say anything against a bone-animation-system. I could use it myself. But the sound-problem is imho more pressing.) Next point: you can't add everything. Someone suggested adding CSG to the API. Someone else suggested raytracer-plug-in-support. Next someone will come up with a shadow-casing-system. It's ok to suggest stuff, but think about the consequences of adding it the "offical" API: You have to port the stuff to all platforms, you have to maintain it over time, it has to work on everything from normal windows-PC with radeon-card over Linux/mesa up to CAVE-Systems. That's not like writing a bit of code to get a little toy working and forget about it, that's a shitload of work over long time. OK, with java as base-system it's not that bad, and if the main-classes don't change you don't have to change your code, but hey... think before you start something like that. After adding it to the offical API you can't just drop whenever you like. Because dropping parts will damage the whole API. And stuff like CSG don't has to be in the offical API. Write a package, write the doc, publish it, finshed. The CSG-package is the ideal example: it works, it's well documened, it can be downloaded and used for free. Perfect. What i'm missing is a central list of such published, finished and free packages. Something like the skin-list for winamp. It's one more http-server for sun, some scripts to add and possibly rate stuff. The way it is now people must use google, don't see any rating and have to trust the maintainer. People get outdated information from unmainted servers, get frustrated by broken links, start thinking "j3d can't do this and this and this" just because it's not in the API and the sun-server doesn't mention it. Just try to find the CSG-package via google. Last time i did it's was on the 4 page, and the link posted in this list was broken at that time. > AFAIC, the development and proliferation of Java 3D > applications has suffered from the standards FUD, and > proliferation of hacks is going to be no improvement - > just different FUDs. I totally argree. > Waddyathink? I don't know what is worse: a "closed", no-longer-developing project/API (learn once, use forever ?) or an API managed by 10 people all running in different directions. What's so bad about using a non-changing API/System ? Nearly all system got something call "backwards"-compatibily, best invention since IBM-360. You want to add something ? Write a package and don't touch the main API. cu Gilson Laurent =========================================================================== To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff JAVA3D-INTEREST". For general help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
