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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Hi,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>I don’t know the origin of the term “containerField” within X3D. However, I now that Coin3D has a class structure as follows: SoBase -> SoFieldContainer -> SoNode. This is the same as in VSG. It originated with implementation of SGIs Open Inventor. The SoFieldContainer class was described as an “abstract base class for objects that contain fields” (in particular, nodes or engines). Whether that is relevant, though, I have to leave to those with a long history of X3D development.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Roy<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> Andreas Plesch [mailto:andreasplesch@gmail.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> 11 October 2016 16:56<br><b>To:</b> Joe D Williams <joedwil@earthlink.net><br><b>Cc:</b> Roy Walmsley <roy.walmsley@ntlworld.com>; X3D Graphics public mailing list <x3d-public@web3d.org><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [x3d-public] getContainerField() [was cobweb DOM integration]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 7:17 PM, Joe D Williams <<a href="mailto:joedwil@earthlink.net" target="_blank">joedwil@earthlink.net</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0cm'><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0cm'><p class=MsoNormal>But containerField is also a rather unintuitive concept, requiring to think 'backwards', eg. up the hierarchy.<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal><br>It really helps to look at the X3D Classic and VRML encodings. Not really up the hierarchy except to verify that the parent can contain the following node. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>I agree, it really helps to understand the VRML encoding although I am not sure it is a good sign that one should do so to understand the XML encoding.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>When I first looked at X3D, I remember that I decided to ignore the containerField attribute due its apparent strangeness. It took to me some time to understand that it has to do with the parent node (after some more time understanding that child nodes are field values, eg. fields are not necessarily attributes). Perhaps "parentField" would have been a more straightforward name for this attribute.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>-Andreas<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br>-- <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Andreas Plesch<br>39 Barbara Rd.<br>Waltham, MA 02453<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>