Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ogicse!milton!brucec%phoebus.phoebus.labs.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET From: brucec%phoebus.phoebus.labs.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: "Space" -- electron energies Message-ID: Date: 15 Aug 90 18:27:45 GMT References: <9007250107.AA01311@hitl.vrnet.washington.edu> Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: Tektronix Inc. Lines: 40 Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu In-Reply-To: wex@dali.pws.bull.com's message of 10 Aug 90 17:50:05 GMT In article wex@dali.pws.bull.com (Buckaroo Banzai) writes: > ... > > In particular, it allows you to construct displays > where one dimension represents a measured property and another dimension > does not. Is this really what you mean to say? I thought the definition of a dimension included some notion of measurement, whether it's continuous or not is another story. > It is *very* hard to show a screen where an object has a position > on the Y axis and *no* position on the X axis :-) > ] > It's hard if your display space is of topological dimension larger than 3, but then most *everything* is hard to display. As I mentioned in a previous article, humans seemed to have evolved in 3D space, and have trouble visualizing higher spaces. On the other hand, it's not so hard to display 3D objects and 2D objects together, when the intention is that the 2D objects don't have a well-defined position along the third axis (I like that terminology better than "no position"). There are two choices: the kludgier one is to pick a plane transverse to the third axis to put the 2D object in, that is, identify ill-defined positions with a unique position. The cleaner way is simply to place all the 2D objects in a plane transverse to the 3D axis, and then extrude them parallel to it. Having done that, it's easy to see where the true 3D objects intersect with the extrusions. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: USE THIS ADDRESS TO REPLY, REPLY-TO IN HEADER MAY BE BROKEN! Bruce Cohen, Computer Research Lab email: brucec@tekcrl.labs.tek.com Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc. phone: (503)627-5241 M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR 97077 -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: USE THIS ADDRESS TO REPLY, REPLY-TO IN HEADER MAY BE BROKEN! Bruce Cohen, Computer Research Lab email: brucec@tekcrl.labs.tek.com Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc. phone: (503)627-5241 M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR 97077