Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!ogicse!milton!brucec%phoebus.labs.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET
From: brucec%phoebus.labs.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Bruce Cohen;;50-662;LP=A;)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Wiewer's Choice (was Re: A view of CyberSpace)
Message-ID: <12712@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 10 Dec 90 18:37:27 GMT
References: <12295@milton.u.washington.edu> <12618@milton.u.washington.edu>
Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: Tektronix Inc.
Lines: 42
Approved: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu



In article <12618@milton.u.washington.edu> arc!steve@apple.com (Steve Savitzky) 
writes:
> I found Arnaud's view of CyberSpace to be very interesting; it meshes
> in many ways with my own.  But I would like to argue strongly against
> his contention that everyone should share the same view of virtual
> objects. 
> 

I agree with Steve's argument completely.  There are simply too many
differences between individual people to expect that one view of reality
will fit all of us.  Hell, we don't really share one view of reality even
when talking about consensus reality!

Another strong argument against an (enforced) common interface is that
there will be pressure to keep it from changing, even if there are good
reasons for it to do so.  I doubt very much that any standards body (and
I've been on several of them) will be able to specify an interface which
can grow in unexpected directions.  And this sort of evolution is exactly
what's making VR possible in the first place.

> This said, there are of course cases in which a shared view will be
> expected.  It would probably be disconcerting if two people sharing a
> virtual office disagreed about where things were in it, although they
> might indeed prefer different colors on the walls.  Games and other
> simulations would probably enforce a uniform view as well.  Sometimes
> I might even want to view a document with all of its author's
> formatting hints, especially if I knew that that author's designs were
> particularly innovative or especially beautiful.

Yes, but notice that the final choice is the user's, NOT the author's or
the programmer's.  The way to deal with this problem is to develop
protocols which allow an interface designer to specify a recommended level
of commonality, or even several, with enumerations of the attributes which
should be used as given at each level.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker-to-managers, aka
Bruce Cohen, Computer Research Lab        email: brucec@tekchips.labs.tek.com
Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc.                phone: (503)627-5241
M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR  97077