Some xVRML History
The Early VRML Spec Process
Over the period 1994-7, an online group known as "the vrml list" (because we "met" on the www-vrml mailing list) worked together to create the original Virtual Reality Modeling Language specifications. By 1997, version 2 of the VRML spec was firmed up and became known as VRML97. After review by the International Organization for Standardization, VRML97 also became ISO/IEC 14772-1:1997.
The Emergence of the Consortium
During the period 1997-9, a new group formed which became known as the Web3D Consortium. The Consortium became primarily an industry-oriented group. The "spec process" was moved off of "the list" and into the hands of "the Consortium". The theory was that VRML had "matured", and that a smaller and industry-oriented group needed to control the future development of VRML. In 1999, Jeff Sonstein left his position at NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, California) to join blaxxun technologies (a company which developed and marketed VRML plugins for web browsers and a multi-user server technology). Jeff became their representative to the Consortium's "Contributors Group". The charge of the Contributors Group was to create the next generation of the VRML specification. They were to base the new spec on XML, the eXtensible Markup Language. Jeff wrote one of the first "straw man" early-draft DTDs for the Contributors Group during this period.
The Emergence of XML Schema
Due to a number of factors, DTDs have (in an operational sense) been largely supplanted by XML Schemas as the primary working documents used to define valid XML. Due to a number of factors, Schema developement by the Consortium for the next generation of VRML has been based on converting from DTDs rather than "starting from first principles". One of the results of this and other factors is that the Consortium Schema document did not appear to be valid XML until very recently, another is that it is over 6000 lines long, and a third is that it is difficult for humans to read and to understand (one of the reasons DTD has been supplanted by Schema in so many venues).
xVRML Project Goals
Professor Sonstein began developing "from first principles" a Schema to describe VRML documents in the form of an XML Schema in July of 2003. His primary goal was to approach the task in an "evolutionary not revolutionary" manner:
to develop a human-readable XML Schema describing what a valid and well-formed XML-based VRML instance document should look like, and based directly on the VRML97 specifications
Jeff has chosen to confine the initial Schema to those VRML97 nodes which were implemented successfully in multiple browser plugins (in other words, prior to the introduction of Geospatial and NURBS nodes into the specifications in 2002).
Current Status
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Next Steps
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