RE: [Algorithms] FW: [CsMain] Scene Graphs (long tangent rant on "standards")

[Graham S. R. <gr...@se...>]

Steve wrote,

> I agree that ad'hoc standards are a good thing - but there comes a point
> where they have to be formalized and taken over by a committee to stablise
> them.

I agree with you. OpenGL has certainly benefited from the approach you
suggest. What bothers me is things that are built by committee from the
ground up.

> PHIGS *was* a useful standard in it's day - it's just been obsoleted by
> the advent of fast, cheap 3D hardware.

I think there actually was something called "Full PHIGS" or "Complete PHIGS"
that came out around 1997 that was a bit more competitive in terms of
capability. But to be honest I hadn't even heard of this incarnation until
yesterday when I did a search to find out where PHIGS was at these days.

> No standard lasts forever - which is why we are not all writing Algol'60
> or FORTRAN IV.

I agree with you statement absolutely. But lasting forever is the *purpose*
of a lot of true standards, and this purpose leads to their complexity and
sometimes downfall. STEP, which I discussed, is designed to allow aircraft
and automobile manufactures archive their complete design histories for 100
years. Not 5 years or 10 years. 100 years. And that is also the problem with
true standards, in some cases. They are sometimes built for archival
purposes, not practical day-to-day use.

Enough of this nonsense! On to more important discussions!

Graham Rhodes