Re: Do we need a common visual metaphor?

Sam Gustman (samg@hanover-crrel.army.mil)
Sat, 11 Jun 1994 12:02:42 -0500

>I agree. I think perhaps what we need is a standard taxonomy for things
>in cyberspace (probably an object-oriented type of hierarchy). The
>rendered representation for each object (or subtree) can then be defined
>by the user as suits their needs (or primed by their navigator application),
>but underlying it all everyone will be navigating the same basic conceptual
>space.
>
>If this taxonomy were defined as part of the VRML protocol (and it would
>of course be extensible by the user), all cyberstuff would be classified
>according to its ontology, allowing more powerful and useful tools for
>navigation.
>
>>They can all design their own way to do things and trade
>>them with others because of the standard. The inclination of people is to
>>use what they understand and can discuss with others -- naturally leading to
>>a benevolent evolution of design forms and metaphor just as it has in
>>the real world.
>>
>> It is up to us as early on designers to suggest some potential
>>starting places, and avoid imposing restrictions on what is possible.
>>
>> PeterK
>
>I think the breakout of services as defined by the Object Management Group
>for the CORBA spec might be something useful to look at too. I think this
>structure might be useful for defining the modes of interaction within a
>VRML document.

The CORBA specifications will be helpful in deciding on implementation
decisions,
but not in describing VRML itself.
What needs to occur if you want to describe the topology in an object-hierarchy
is to describe the behavior of the objects in question (or the interface
and types).
A "behavioral model" will need to be created. A client would
just interpret the script and behave according to it's own environment. We
basically would be creating an SQL for VR.

An example of a work in progress of something like this is the Open Geodata
Interoperability Specification (OGIS) project. This is creating a
behavioral model
for the distributed processing of spatial data. The clients in this case
are GIS's.

OGIS info:
Home Page: http://ginko.cecer.army.mil:8000
Page Of Particular Interest:
http://ginko.cecer.army.mil:8000/~liberte/OGIS/space.html
>
> Rick Duffy, Martin Marietta Astronatics
> duffy@den.mmc.com or rduffy@nyx.cs.du.edu
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Sam Gustman tel - (603) 646-4711
Computer Engineer email: samg@hanover-crrel.army.mil
QBE Entertainment, Inc. and
Amblin Studios
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