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author | David Walter Seikel | 2012-04-18 15:59:18 +1000 |
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committer | David Walter Seikel | 2012-04-18 15:59:18 +1000 |
commit | 41e337daed78e75fc5b33b1e17c73e7989d3590a (patch) | |
tree | 3825c5e74202baefe587b2642eb649a8d1e01865 /ClientHamr | |
parent | Include one more warning that is not covered by -Wall. They should rename it... (diff) | |
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Adding the new extantz viewer and grid manager.
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-rw-r--r-- | ClientHamr/extantz/README | 107 |
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diff --git a/ClientHamr/extantz/README b/ClientHamr/extantz/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6ba67a --- /dev/null +++ b/ClientHamr/extantz/README | |||
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1 | Extantz is a front end to virtual world viewers, mostly of the SL | ||
2 | (Second Life) variety since that's my focus. Most SL style virtual | ||
3 | world viewers can be invoked with options to start them logging on, and | ||
4 | skipping the login screen. So this project aims to be that login | ||
5 | screen, doing all the things that can be done from the meta-impy login | ||
6 | screen, plus more. Once the user hits the login button, extantz figures | ||
7 | out what parameters to pass to what viewer, then starts it up and gets | ||
8 | out of the way. Following the ClientHamr philosophy of breaking the | ||
9 | viewer up into modules that do simpler tasks, and do them well. So that | ||
10 | means that meta-impy will eventually loose it's login screen, to be | ||
11 | replaced by extantz. | ||
12 | |||
13 | Extantz is a made up word. The challenge was to find a word beginning | ||
14 | with E, is as traditional with EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Library) | ||
15 | projects, that has not been done to death, and thus has some reasonable | ||
16 | chance to turn up in google searches. It also helps if it somehow or | ||
17 | other reflects what the project actually is. lol | ||
18 | |||
19 | Extant means "still existing, surviving", or the more archaic meaning, | ||
20 | from it's original Latin roots "standing out, be visible, exist". | ||
21 | |||
22 | Extent means "an area or volume, the range over which a thing extends" | ||
23 | among other things. | ||
24 | |||
25 | So I hope to invoke thoughts of a volume that exists and stands out. In | ||
26 | other words, virtual worlds. Meh, I'm not that artsy, it needed a name. | ||
27 | lol | ||
28 | |||
29 | Extantz starts off looking like any other viewers login screen, showing | ||
30 | the login page of the default, or last visited grid, a small menu at the | ||
31 | top with the usual functions, and the usual login buttons at the bottom. | ||
32 | Added to that will be a better grid manager, with proper user | ||
33 | management, suitable for people with more than one account per grid. | ||
34 | The user will have the ability to choose a virtual world viewer to be | ||
35 | the default, and even to associate a particular viewer with a particular | ||
36 | grid. This is useful, for instance, for grids that have their own | ||
37 | custom viewers, but the user wants to use a more generic viewer for all | ||
38 | the other grids. Or if the user wants to use one viewer for OpenSim | ||
39 | grids, but another for LL (Linden Labs) grids. Coz perhaps their chosen | ||
40 | viewer is not TPVP (Third Party Viewer Policy, an LL thing) compliant, | ||
41 | and Ll are just more anal than the rest of the universe. | ||
42 | |||
43 | The grid manager will also include some sort of search capability, as is | ||
44 | currently being discussed by various people in the OpenSim universe. | ||
45 | There might even be several search systems in place, so supporting | ||
46 | existing ones, and the ability to add more might be useful. Extantz | ||
47 | should be the only thing registered to handle hop:// and other such URLs | ||
48 | in whatever web browsers you are using. Though most viewers want to | ||
49 | register themselves, so tends to be that which ever one you started up | ||
50 | last, or first, gets that privilege. That's a whole can of worms, sane | ||
51 | policy and code should help. | ||
52 | |||
53 | It might be useful to have extantz be able to download viewers, | ||
54 | including checking for updates and offering to download them. As well | ||
55 | as updates to common things like viewer tag definition files. | ||
56 | |||
57 | Extantz, unlike the LL viewer code base, will be designed for relogging. | ||
58 | Once the viewer it starts quits (or crashes), extantz, which was still | ||
59 | running, can pop again and let the user relog, or log to some other | ||
60 | grid, or same grid as different a user, or even same grid as same user | ||
61 | with a different viewer. | ||
62 | |||
63 | Viewers can be made extantz aware, like meta-impy will be (since it's | ||
64 | handing it's login screen functionality to extantz). A few more things | ||
65 | make sense to be added in this case. For instance, you might want to | ||
66 | have some or all of your LMs (LandMarks) be usable at the log in | ||
67 | screen, so you can log directly to them. The user might want the choice | ||
68 | when they HG (HyperGrid teleport) to actually start up a new viewer and | ||
69 | just login to the other grid instead (if they already have an account | ||
70 | there). While HGed to some new grid, the user might want to add that | ||
71 | grid to the extantz grid manager at a simple click of a button, perhaps | ||
72 | complete with an LM for their current position. The grid searching | ||
73 | capabilities mentioned earlier might be needed while in world. | ||
74 | Certainly the grid manager functions in meta-impy will be handled by | ||
75 | extantz, even if in world. | ||
76 | |||
77 | In order to display the login page of a grid, which is a web page, a web | ||
78 | browser will be built into extantz. It could be used to display web | ||
79 | pages within an extantz aware viewer. Though perhaps not for MOAP | ||
80 | (Media On A Prim), unless extantz grows the ability to incorporate | ||
81 | itself into the viewers 3D landscape as part of a prim. Which is a good | ||
82 | idea, then meta-impy no longer needs a web browser. Though other things | ||
83 | in the viewer are implemented as web pages, and LL are moving more stuff | ||
84 | to the web. | ||
85 | |||
86 | One of the things on the login screen is the menu option to start up the | ||
87 | preferences window and change the viewers preferences. Viewers use XML | ||
88 | files that not only store the preferences, but also a description of | ||
89 | them. The preferences window and it's various parts are also stored as | ||
90 | XML files. There is a bit missing that is in the viewer source code | ||
91 | that ties all of this together. So it might not be possible to do this | ||
92 | for all viewers. Extantz aware viewers can naturally provide the | ||
93 | missing bits to Extantz, even if not running, or even pass that entire | ||
94 | functionality to extantz, just like meta-impy will do. | ||
95 | |||
96 | For the purposes of keeping resource usage low, it should be possible | ||
97 | for the user to configure extantz to go away when it starts a viewer. | ||
98 | Might be a good idea even for extantz aware viewers, that can start it | ||
99 | up again if it's functionality is needed while in world. Note this "go | ||
100 | away" means to stop running and free up any resources it was using; | ||
101 | which is different from the "gets out of the way" it usually does, still | ||
102 | running, just not on screen. | ||
103 | |||
104 | |||
105 | |||
106 | |||
107 | |||