[Axiom-developer] 3D solid models

[daly]

>> The browser front end currently allows Axiom notebook-like interaction
>> (you type an expression and see the result) as well as hyperdoc-style
>> browsing (only some of the pages have been converted so far).
>> 
>> The graphics port to the browser will require using a canvas.  (Scott
>> Morrison's command of graphics has me cracking open my Foley and Van
>> Dam book.)  I've done some canvas programming with javascript to test
>> examples.  I'd like to use the new websocket interface so the canvas
>> can do interactive commands back to axiom (my attempt to use it
>> failed, probably due to a misconfiguration somewhere).

>Out of curiosity, does the WebGL work have any implications for the
>browser-as-interface paradigm, either for 3D plotting or possibly as
>a complete "generic canvas" solution?  I confess I hadn't really
>thought too deeply about it since I'm one of those old fogies who
>vastly prefers a purpose-built interface for most things as opposed
>to browser-as-interface, but as I consider interfaces like that of
>Blender and the push towards WebGL it occurs to me that a pure OpenGL
>interface (probably excepting key bindings and events, as usual)
>might be able to do lots of really cool things on all sorts of
>devices...

>CY

I'm reading up on the pipeline and have done some minor attempts
at using patches on 3D objects (image on a cube). 3D solid models
in Axiom would be most amazing but I'd be happy to reproduce the
current graphics. I was involved with 3D solid models in my 
robotics work at IBM on the BOXER project. We had a locally built
tool that worked like CATIA.

Tim