On Nov 26, 2006, at 11:28 AM, William Stein wrote: > On Sun, 26 Nov 2006 10:37:49 -0800, David Joyner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > There are three distinct problems that all need to be solved. > It is important not to confuse them. > > (1) static graphics in the notebook > (2) dynamic graphics in the notebook > (3) dynamic local graphics not using the notebook > > -------------- > > (2) Dynamic graphics in the notebook. > This means graphics that the user interacts with that are in the > notebook. > Since we're talking about 3d graphics only right now, I think the only > possible solutions here are: > (a) A Java applet: > -- Either find one "out there" which is free and open > source or > write one. > I could not find any with a half hour google search > last night. > But closed source applets that do just what we want > exist, so > it is definitely possible to write such a thing. > -- Integrate it with SAGE. Make it so the applet gets > embedded > in the SAGE notebook when a user creates an > interactive 3d graph. > This could be done already as a proof of concept using > one > of the closed source 3d viewers.
In the (seemingly likely) case that we are unable to find an open- source java applet, I do have a lot of experience with java and even some some with 3-d applets (e.g. http://bradshaw.no-ip.org/java/ RubiksCube/ , though I haven't gotten around to fixing the buffering problems on newer operating systems...) Java would also have the advantage that it would be easy to use the same exact code in both the notebook and as an option locally without the notebook. > (b) A Flash script: > -- I don't know anything about Flash. Maybe Tom will > comment. > Given the choice I prefer Java to Flash because java > is rumored > to be GPL'd in the near future. > > -------------- > > > (3) Dynamic local graphics not using the notebook. > Since here it's all local to your computer, I think it should > be optional and build requirements can be heavier. > > (a) Probably VTK and MayVI are by far the best solutions. > What needs to be done: > -- It would be good if somebody could put the work into making > both > of these very easy to build into SAGE as optional packages, > assuming the user has OpenGL devel packages on their computer > already. > -- Provide support for using them in the context of SAGE. > > (b) GNUplot -- not for SAGE, unless they fix their license. > > (c) That openmath wish thing that maxima evidently includes. > More investigation is needed. > > I strongly favor (a), since the power and capaibilities of > VTK/MayVI is absolutely incredible, and it is a project that is > strongly supported by the Python scientific computing community. > Plus the author of MayVI is really cool :-). > > William --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://sage.scipy.org/sage/ and http://modular.math.washington.edu/sage/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
