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