Re: WWWInline; include non-VRML data?

Robert Glidden (softpres@crl.com)
Mon, 17 Oct 1994 17:19:08 -0700 (PDT)

Wouldn't the ability to access different kinds of data, such as a
hypertext document, be a key feature of vrml? I would imagine that a
shopping mall would want to be able to eventually open up a catalog of
items available at a particular shop, for example.

On Mon, 17 Oct 1994, Gavin Bell wrote:

> What happens when an author specifys a non-VRML URL for a WWWInline?
>
> For example, what happens to this VRML scene:
>
> #VRML V1.0 ascii
> Separator {
> Cube { }
> Translation { translation 3 0 0 }
>
> WWWInline { name "http://www.foo.com/someFile.gif" }
> }
>
> There are a couple of possibilities:
>
> 1. This is an error. We say that a WWWInline must reference a VRML
> file.
>
> 2. The WWWInline wraps up other types into 3D objects. For example,
> referencing a 2D image could result in a texture-mapped rectangle being
> the WWWInline's appearance. A pretty cool feature, but it adds a lot
> of implementation burden and supporting all of the common MIME types
> would be almost impossible.
>
> 3. Behavior is left up to the implementation.
>
>
> I suggest WWWInline node understand only VRML references, and consider
> all other types errors (option 1).
>
>
>