[sldev] [META][AWG]log chat of AWG meeting Friday, Oct 5, 2007

[Lawson English]

Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> On 07-Oct-2007, at 18:44, Lawson English wrote:
>> I believe  there can and likely SHOULD BE plenty of data  associated 
>> with the client that doesn't live in an external asset server.
>
> Can you distinguish between these two cases?
>
> * Data that does not live in an external asset server, but should be 
> able to be stored there, such as local content that is being modified 
> prior to uploading.
>
> * data that does not live in an external asset server because it is 
> purely local to the client, such as user-interface layout files.
>
> Which are you talking about?

In my case, specifically, I'm talkign about the keywords/functions data 
for the floater I'm making. This obviously is never going to be 
published as an asset, but it still should "live" in the client. The 
issue I ran into that got me so incensed about this whole thing is that 
the folder class in the client is chained to the asset server. Anything 
"not an asset" can't be put into a folder. The classes themselves are so 
chained I can't derive a non-asset folder class from them without 
rewriting almost the entire class.

This is a trivial example, but what about more interesting ones?

I have perhaps 100 sample scripts in my inventory. There's no easy way 
to browse them save by name because they are assets. Why can't I have 
"proto" scripts that live in a folder that points to one or more xml 
files or to a database that only lives on my computer, but that I can 
still manipulate as a "first class" bit of data for every purpose EXCEPT 
dumping into some other inventory? (and translation mechanisms for most 
types of non-assets could still be automated ala the conventions that 
apple developed 24 years ago for the Mac clipboard and refined in the 
OpenDoc spec).

What about the notes on friends/enemies/places of interest that everyone 
keeps? Those aren't sortable either.

What about sculpty textures created with a client plug-in that aren't 
loaded to the asset server?

And, in the world wide grid, what about assets that can't be used on one 
grid, but can be in another, that live in my inventory as "assets" even 
though they're not assets on the currently accessed grid?

In principle, anything that a user can view inside the client, could 
become an asset, either as a notecard, or a screenshot-texture, but some 
things are more "asset-like" than others. And some things are an asset 
in one context (made on grid x) but not another (incompatible with grid 
y) or ARE  assets, period,  but you don't have permissions to take them 
with you.