[sldev] [ogpx] Snowglobe on OpenSim grids

[Carlo Wood]

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 10:55:28PM -0800, Dzonatas Sol wrote:
> Wouldn't it be better if the map was a LLMediaPlugin. That way each
> map window can be customized to a grid. That would also mean each
> grid would load it's own viewer plugin.

In my attempt to convince people that for (future) VWRAP client-server
communication it is necessary to have feature(/protocol) negotiation,
some people claim that this is not necessary because "it" can be
done with caps.

The negotiation that I proposed basically comes down to:
"abitrary label" implies "mandatory features/protocol" +
"list of optional features", and then the client picks
from the list (that it has internally). In other words:
a negotiation of booleans with arbitrary meaning.

IF that is to be replaced / covered with caps, then that
means that caps will have to be USED as "boolean negotiation
with arbitrary meaning".

I wonder, are people really ready / willing to do that?

As an example (hence my reply to Dzonatas' post),

if different grid (or VW to speak with Morgaine) would like
to list plugins to load; do people really think that 'caps'
is an appropriate method to determine which plugins are
needed?

A boolean approach could be:

  if (caps_plugin_xyz_needed_exists)
    load_plugin_xyz();

Another approach could be:

  if (caps_need_plugins_exists)
  {
    get_plugin_names(the_cap);
    load_plugins();
  }

The latter is more of a use as caps were intended, but
please consider the first one too: I'd like to know if
it really feels OK with you; since for other things
we will only need boolean negotiation(s).

My fear is that people would rather code heuristic
kludges in a viewer to determine/guess what grid they
are on and what to support, than to wait for a server
implementation to add a new caps... So, in order for
this to work, the server implementations would have
to provide boolean caps at the SAME time they provide
a new feature, which isn't going to happen unless
everyone says: Oh yeah, that is sooo clearly how caps
are intended, of course we will do that.

-- 
Carlo Wood <carlo at alinoe.com>