GenericLoader

Engines, Libraries and Tools Xith3D Forums
#1

I suggest that GenericLoader be moved from org.xith3d.loaders to org.xith3d.loaders.ext and that the original author add his javadoc tag.
http://earth.whoola.com:8080/javadoc/xith-tk/org/xith3d/loaders/ext/package-summary.html

#2

Done. I didn’t know this package. Should have looked on it.

But I would prefer to move the content of the ext package to the loaders package, since having an ext package besides loader-format packages indicates that this package also contains a loader implementation which is not the case. And in ext.xith3d.loaders they are very well placed.

#3

Ah this is the badness of documentation lack…

#4

I assume you meant “org.xith3d.loaders” in the above. I am not sure I agree with you because the “ext” subpackage is a collection of loaders that load based on filename extension. If I were going to put anything in “org.xith3d.loaders”, it would be the classes in “com.xith3d.loaders”:
http://earth.whoola.com:8080/javadoc/xith3d/com/xith3d/loaders/package-summary.html

#5

[quote="<MagicSpark.org [ BlueSky ]>,post:3,topic:27723"]
Ah this is the badness of documentation lack…
[/quote]
Some of the documentation is included in the package summaries of the javadoc:
http://earth.whoola.com:8080/javadoc/xith-tk/org/xith3d/loaders/ext/package-summary.html
http://earth.whoola.com:8080/javadoc/xith-tk/org/xith3d/loaders/dae/whoola/package-summary.html#package_description

How about adding a reference in the documentation to these package descriptions? For example:

“Many of the Xith Loaders are based on the on the Loader interface from Java 3D API and are compatible in functionality. Please see the Java 3D API documentation for usage instructions. For specific information on the Xith Filename Extension loaders, please see [javadoc link]. For the Xith Whoola COLLADA Loader, please see [javadoc link].”

#6

true.

Actually they are no loaders but loader wrappers for convenience like my one.

I have a completely different suggestion for package hierarchy concerning loaders. Since the existing hierarchy is quite fungous and badly grown we should consider reorganizing it completely like this one:

com.xith3d.loaders:

- scenes
    [list]
        - IncorrectFormatException.java
        - ParsingErrorException.java
        - Loader.java
        - LoaderBase.java
        - Scene.java
        - SceneBase.java
    
- textures
    
        - ...
        - (TextureLoader should be completely replaced by TextureLoader2 and Textureloader2 be renamed to TextureLoader)
        - ...

[/list]

org.xith3d.loaders.scenes:

- impl
    [list]
        - ase
        - dae
        - md2
        - obj
        - tds
        - ...
    
- helpers (or something else)
    
        - DefaultLoader.java
        - ExtDaeLoader.java
        - ExtensionLoader.java
        - GenericLoader.java
        - ...

[/list]

Quite short, isn’t it?

Well, this is one of the ugliest documentations I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, croft. I render homage to you for making all these loaders. But the documentation is quite bad. And you know, I don’t like the Scene/SceneBase implementation.

#7

That’s planned. I should do that for 0.8.

#8

I think, the other reorganization should also be done before 0.8. I think this modification makes sense, doesn’t it? And if you say, 0.8 comes out tomorrow, shouldn’t we do it as early as possible (now)?