Hi Justin, Platform independence is the reason for the popularity of Java, and must be the over-riding consideration in the future of Java3D (the failure to license Java3D on OS X has ruined platform independence for visualization).
The optimal solution would be to include Java3D in the Java license, so that Java3D would be supported wherever Java is and subject to the license provision that all implementations must obey the standard. We don't care about new features: Java3D already does a lot. All we really need is bug fixing and standardization. If Sun won't do that, then open source is tempting. But without some license provision enforcing the standard, Java3D will suffer the same fate that Unix has: fragmented into zillions of incompatible versions because each implementer knows how to make his just a little bit better. If you listen closely you can hear the champaign corks popping in Redmond as part of Java is turned to the dark side. The U.S. government's anti-trust case uncovered an internal M$ planning document that said "kill cross-platform Java by growing the polluted Java market". In the visualization market, polluted Java3D will serve just as well. It amuses me to read detailed technical comparisons of Java and .NET that fail to mention that the Java license enforces standardization and the .NET license does not - the only difference that matters. Perhaps Sun can include Java3D under the Java license, with IBM or HP or Intel or Apple (!?) actually maintaining it (this is probably a pipe dream, but it would be nice). Failing that, open source is better than the status quo. We use Java3D for the VisAD visualization library, available from http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/visad.html. Cheers, Bill ---------------------------------------------------------- Bill Hibbard, SSEC, 1225 W. Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 608-263-4427 fax: 608-263-6738 http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/vis.html =========================================================================== 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".
