[Plib-devel] searching scenegraphs

[Bram S. <br...@sa...>]

Hi there,

I believe that plib's search functionality is currently limited to
searching a direct child in a branch, by ssgEntity pointer. There
does not seem to be a recursive search function, neither a search
on different criteria. (I checked docs, and ssg includes, but could
not find this).

I would like to be able to search by name, in a hierarchy.

What would be the proper thing to do?

- Do this in application space, and let plib be as is?

- Do this in plib, as a non-member func in ssg, e.g.
   ssgEntity *ssgFind(const char *name, ssgEntity *tree);

- Do this in plib, as a member func of ssgBranch, e.g:
   ssgEntity *ssgBranch::Find(const char *name);

- Do this in a more generic way, so that:
   * different criteria can be used, other than name-base.
   * multiple hits can be returned.

- Model it after SGI's OpenGL|Performer pfLookupNode, which is:
      pfNode* pfLookupNode(const char *name, pfType* type);


I'll be happy to add the proper functionality, if there is consensus
about this on this mailing list. (Personally, I like performer's method).



   Bram