[x3d-public] List of X3D problems or missing features, from the point of view of Michalis and Castle Game Engine

[Michalis Kamburelis]

2018-03-06 14:54 GMT+01:00 GPU Group <gpugroup at gmail.com>:
> One more thing the proposer(s) can do to help decision makers:
> - re-write the specs, showing editing: strikeout on old and underlined on
> new.
>

IMHO, the specification authors could make this process easier (and
more open) by just publishing the specification sources (I'm
guessing they are in DocBook) on GitHub, and allowing people to submit
pull requests vs it.

The "pull request" is how you show proposed changes (what to remove,
what to add) in the XXI-st century:) We have this cool technology of
version control, diffs and pull requests, and code reviews, integrated
in GitHub (and other platforms), it would be great to just use it for
the development of X3D specification.

I was already suggesting it in the past, citing as an example glTF
specifications from Khronos. Look how cool is this:
https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF/ --- you can read the
specification, see all the changes, and you're only a few clicks away
from forking the spec to create a pull request to propose a change.
Like this: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF/pull/1147 . Everyone
sees the proposed changes
https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF/pull/1147/files , everyone can
comment (using the "conversations" or even GitHub "code review" system
which allows to easily request changes in the middle of text), and
when it's accepted -- someone with permissions just clicks "merge" and
this happens: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF/commit/ac92c9214f27e21cfcd8d18b969c39a80dd6e15d#diff-a787a363bd89618cda440f087cd0e0e1
.

I dream that something like this would be possible with X3D
specification :) Technically, it should be really easy to set up ---
upload the specifications sources (publicly) on GitHub (or really any
other software website, like GitLab or even SourceForge, although
GitHub / GitLab are better than SourceForge in my eyes as of now). Of
course I'm not aware of any legal hurdles on the way to this, so I
realize that internally it may not be so easy... But, since Khronos is
doing it for their specs, surely it's possible? :)

Regards,
Michalis