[x3d-public] JSON Encoding - Taking Don's idea one step further

[Roy Walmsley]

Don and John,

 

I can see the benefit of Don's idea. So, I have been trying to give it some
thought, and would like to make the following very radical, iffy,
suggestion:

 

Don's idea was to introduce a "-children" to accommodate ROUTES and
comments.

 

The current (or alternative) JSON encoding tends to treat it like a Classic
VRML encoding, in the sense of specifying the xFNode field names and then
adding the children.

 

My thought is, can we, say, add a "-content" field, and then add the content
more in the XML encoding style. So comments and ROUTEs become content, just
like child nodes. All nodes that have any children have a "-content".

 

Take a snippet from the HelloWorld example. This is Don's latest
incarnation:

 

   { "Shape":

      {

        "-children":[

          { "#comment":"Sphere begin"},

          { "#comment":"Sphere complete, Appearance begin"},

          { "#comment":"Appearance complete"}

        ],

        "-geometry":[

          { "Sphere":

            {

            }

          }

        ],

        "-appearance":[

          { "Appearance":

            {

              "-children":[

               { "#comment":"Material begin"},

               { "#comment":"Material complete, ImageTexture begin"},

               { "#comment":"ImageTexture complete"}

              ],

              "-material":[

                { "Material":

                  {

                    "@DEF":"MaterialLightBlue",

                    "@diffuseColor":[0.1,0.5,1]

                  }

                }

              ],

              "-texture":[

                { "ImageTexture":

                  {

                    "@DEF":"ImageCloudlessEarth",

                    "@url":["earth-topo.png"]

                  }

                }

              ]

            }

          }

        ]

      }

    }

 

And this is what my idea would produce:

 

   { "Shape":

      {

        "-content":[

          { "#comment":"Sphere begin"},

          { "Sphere":

            {

            }

          }

          { "#comment":"Sphere complete, Appearance begin"},

          { "Appearance":

            {

              "-content":[

               { "#comment":"Material begin"},

                { "Material":

                  {

                    "@DEF":"MaterialLightBlue",

                    "@diffuseColor":[0.1,0.5,1]

                  }

                }

               { "#comment":"Material complete, ImageTexture begin"},

                { "ImageTexture":

                  {

                    "@DEF":"ImageCloudlessEarth",

                    "@url":["earth-topo.png"]

                  }

                }

               { "#comment":"ImageTexture complete"}

              ]

            }

          }

          { "#comment":"Appearance complete"}

        ]

      }

    }

 

I don't know if it is valid JSON, but I hope it gives you the idea.
@containerFields would be added if required.

 

Pros and cons:

 

PRO: All comments remain in exactly the right places (so would also apply to
ROUTEs)

PRO: Uses the term "-content" which is not a term used elsewhere

 

CON: Would mean a complete rethink/rewrite of development tools.

 

Anyway, just an idea .

 

Regards,

 

Roy

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