[X3D-Public] release announement: X3D-Edit, X3D Validator, and Xj3D improvements

[Don Brutzman]

X3D-Edit is an open-source Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics authoring tool for simple error-free editing, authoring and validation of X3D scenes.
	https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit

Download and autoupdate instructions:
	https://savage.nps.edu/X3D-Edit/#Downloads

Our holiday release includes several small but helpful fixes.
- New option under Shape node:  "Selectable Text" design pattern, which appends a semitransparent Box (that can be adjusted to make text selectable, and a TouchSensor which provides a tooltip description.
- Detailed error checking for ElevationGrid and GeoElevationGrid.

These latest validation improvements are also added to the X3D Validator, both internal to X3D-Edit and online.
	https://savage.nps.edu/X3dValidator

Tons of work on Xj3D fixes too.  Terry Norbraten and I have been doing a lot of "deep dive" debugging of X3D scenes, external prototypes, prototype declarations and Javascript.
- Catching and correcting a wide range of error exceptions, both at Xj3D player and Aviatrix3d renderer level.
- Reporting details when content errors occur, including line and column number in X3D scene source files.
- Corrected parser handling of TRUE/true and FALSE/false booleans in .x3dv ClassicVRML and .x3d XML file syntax.
- Using DeathTimer for improved handling of offline image rendering of viewpoints as .png images, to ensure problematic scenes actually finish.
   * A dark and evil class who is very impatient.  If it isn't told to stop in time it will kill the whole system.
   * Used with captureViewpoints in case the browser hangs.  We want the browser to still exit.
- Major addition is upgrading the internal Javascript engine to use the latest Mozilla Rhino library.
	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/Rhino
- All checked into Sourceforge, including Aviatrix3d mods.  Details currently at
	https://savage.nps.edu/Savage/developers.html#Xj3D
	https://sourceforge.net/p/xj3d/code/12077/tree/branches
	https://sourceforge.net/p/xj3d/code/HEAD/tree/branches/NPS
	https://sourceforge.net/p/xj3d/code/HEAD/tree/branches/Supporting_APIs

We look forward to further exploring candidate aviatrix3d modifications with lead author Justin Couch to achieve the best possible results.  Originally these had been a small set of tweaks to support Xj3D, but enough variation has emerged that we want to ensure everyone has access.
	https://sourceforge.net/p/xj3d/code/12077/tree//branches/Supporting_APIs/aviatrix3d/docs/RELEASE_NOTES

X3D-Edit/X3D Validator/Xj3D testing and usage continues.  Currently we are reshooting all images to the Savage X3D Examples archive to see if any version-control image diffs emerge in a few thousand viewpoint screenshots.  Archive updates to follow.

Further progress and new future work:  Terry exposed the autogeneration of Backus Naur Form (BNF) documentation for the Xj3D parsers - copies attached.  These will be interesting to compare to the regular context-free grammars in the X3D specifications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Backus-Naur_Form

Example output for Selectable Text design pattern follows, you can check it out yourself in other X3D scenes and players.  Screenshots also attached.

     <!-- Selectable Text has transparent Box and TouchSensor description as a tooltip -->
     <Group>
       <Shape>
       <Text string='"Here are some" "lines of text..."' solid='false'>
         <FontStyle family='"SANS"' justify='"MIDDLE" "MIDDLE"' size='1' style='BOLD'/>
       </Text>
       <Appearance>
         <Material diffuseColor='0.9 0.9 0.9'/>
       </Appearance>
     </Shape>
       <Shape>
         <!-- Author TODO: to adjust transparent Box as text-selection assist, set width and height to match size, then set transparency='1' to make invisible.  -->
         <Box size='6.2 2 .001'/>
         <Appearance>
           <Material transparency='0.8'/>
         </Appearance>
       </Shape>
       <!-- Author TODO: for interactive scenes, the TouchSensor output is easily applied as an animation trigger by adding a DEF name and a connecting ROUTE. -->
       <TouchSensor description='enter user-tooltip description of selectable text here'/>
     </Group>

Wishing everyone a happy holiday.  Have fun with X3D-Edit, X3D Validator, and Xj3D!

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman

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