[X3D-Public] Xj3D Evolution - Web3D.org

[Alan Hudson]

On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Don Brutzman <brutzman at nps.edu> wrote:

> Those of you monitoring the checkins to Xj3D may have noticed that Terry
> Norbraten has successfully upgraded the NPS branch of Xj3D to support the
> latest JOGL and JOAL for multiple operating systems.  Great progress!
>
> After much consideration, our team would like to propose a number of
> improvements regarding how we all collaboratively improve Xj3D.
>
>         Xj3D Evolution
>         http://web3d.org/wiki/index.php/Xj3D_Evolution
>
> Dialog is welcome on the source at web3d.org mailing list.  The initial
> information on the wiki page is copied here as a starting point in the
> email archives.  We'll be happy to further have teleconference discussion
> as part of the weekly X3D Working Group meeting, or dedicated
> teleconference session(s) to improve these points and plans further.
>
> ========================================================
> Xj3D Evolution
>
> Xj3D is an open-source Java implementation for X3D that has been used to
> demonstrate many capabilities for valuable projects and for specification
> development.
>
> We are considering how to further stabilize, improve and accelerate
> development of the Xj3D code base. This page is collecting ideas for
> potential improvement.
>
> Timeline Goals
>
> These are familiar topics and lots of great work continues. It should be
> straightforward for interested stakeholders to discuss and agree on next
> steps.
>
>     After initial discussion on the email list, we will make this the
> subject of a weekly X3D working group teleconference (held Wednesdays
> 8-10am pacific)
>     Our goal is to have everything transitioned, stabilized, announced and
> ready for new contributions at the Web3D 2014 Conference and SIGGRAPH 2014
> Conference in Vancouver Canada, 8-10 and 11-14 August.
>
> Source Code Hosting
>
> In order to achieve greater participation and development, the code needs
> to move to a stable public open-source repository. This will gain a lot
> more visibility among programmers who might want to contribute.
>
>     xj3d.org has hosted the source for many years but development has
> been intermittent and somewhat less than fully open.
>
>     The NPS branch of Xj3D is used for experimental development. Proven
> changes and unit tests are integrated back into the Xj3D trunk when stable.
>
> SourceForge
>
>     Web3D already has numerous assets checked into the Sourceforge X3D
> project
>     Multiple participants have experience with using and administering
> this site
>     The current code is in subversion, this can be migrated completely
>
> GitHub
>
>     GitHub includes the X3DOM project and a few other X3D-related projects
>     TODO: it appears that the github pricing policy costs money to operate
> an organizational repository
>
> Web3D.org home page
>
> Several project builds are maintained on external repositories but their
> corresponding websites are automatically built and updated on web3d.org
>
>     TODO: should www.web3d.org/xj3d (or somesuch) become the official
> home of Xj3D?
>
> Mailing List
>
> Web3D Consortium maintains the mailing list archives.
>
>     Discussion list source at web3D.org is a misnomer and can be restarted
> as xj3d at web3d.org
>     This list is also used for discussions on the SourceForge jgeom project
>     Commits list source_x3d_cvs at web3d.org and commits account
> cvs-user at xj3d.org are also mis-named since subversion is used
>
> Upcoming tasks
> Merge modified Xj3D codebases
>
> Excellent improvements to Xj3D have occurred over the years that were
> never re-integrated into the version-controlled code base. We hope to
> capture these improvements.
>
>     Virginia Tech (VT) Structure And Form Analysis System (SAFAS) system,
> Nicholas Polys
>     PartDB Inc., Hyokwang Lee
>     Others?
>
> Xj3D issue tracking
>
> Currently two bugzilla sites are in existence.
>
>     bugzilla.xj3d.org (master)
>     NPS bugzilla
>
> For maximum reliability over long term, we likely need to migrate to the
> native issue tracker associated with whatever source host is chosen.
>
> Xj3D website improvements
>
> The Xj3D website is moderately complete but woefully out of date. TODO:
>
>     Confirm that website pages and documentation are checked into version
> control
>     Automate website updates using local version
>     Offer ways for people to contribute bug reports, issues, improvements
>
> Programming problems
>
> Several areas of Xj3D implementation are problematic. Dedicated attention
> and teamwork may help.
>
>     Confirm updated jogl rendering is working, especially z-buffer and
> aliasing
>     Extrusion
>     Image rendering timing can miss colors/textures and hangs on numerous
> examples
>     Compressed binary encoding hangs on numerous examples, but the
> apparent list of exception errors seems short
>     Other project efforts are welcome
> ========================================================
>
> Thanks especially to Alan, Justin and Rex, plus all other contributors,
> who got us here today.
>
> Don, I understand your desires to fork the codebase and I'm fine with
that.  I would ask that you change the name of the new project so there is
no confusion.
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