best language for 3D manipulation over web ?

[TGOS]

On Sat, 2 Jun 2001 22:31:50 +0200, "Polterguy"
<idi.amin at NOFUCKINGSPAMORILLSUEYOURASSfrisurf.no> wrote:

> [...snip...]
> I agree totally, but fact is 99.99999% of the commersial world uses win32.

Are you sure you understand the term "commercial"?
Windows is mainly used by private users and not even there 99% of them use it.

Do you think a nuclear power plant runs with Windows? Or maybe the software of
an airport tower? If that's the case, how many people do you think would die
during a blue screen error?

Do you think the majority of worldwide banks use Windows? An easy to hack,
insecure and not very stable operating system? A blue screen would mean loosing
millions of dollars a minute and a single hack would make every hacker a rich
man.

At my university are over 2,000 PCs and not a single one runs with Windows.

On which planet are you living?
You probably think that 99% of all CPUs currently in use are x86 CPUs, right?
Well, that's damn wrong. Not even 40% of all CPUs are x86 compatible ones.
(Source: Market Research of '99...not quite up-to-date, but there hasn't
changed that much in the last 1 and half years)
And with what OS do you think run the other 60%? Certainly not with Windows.


> So why go through the extra trouble adding cross OS programming when it's
> going to increase the cost of releasing a product with a factor of 50?!?

Have you actually read the first post within the thread you are replying to?
Where is the difference for a programmer, whether he uses a Windows only
solution or a cross platform solution?

He was told to use a Windows-only version, which is rather stupid considering
that there's already a cross-platform solution, that is as powerful as the
Windows only one.

> All game companies founded on cross OS releases have either gone broke or
> are soon to become so!

Especially ID Software (creators of Doom1/2 and Quake1/2/3), who only use
OpenGL and all their games exist for a huge range of platforms (including
Linux, Unix and Macintosh). So much to the credibility of your "facts".

Despite that, games are really important for "commercial PC users". I mean
office workers play Quake all day long, that's what they get paid for, right?

How can someone talk about the "commercial world" and then mention games?
The fact that most game companies only develop games for Win32 platforms, has a
simple reason: only private users play games and there the majority has a Win32
platform.

But where is the connection between private users and the "commercial world"?

> If you want to be successfule and reach 99.9999% of the world use technology
> built on win32, DirectX, C++, hell fucking ay, if you can get away with it
> use VB!!.

What you say make no sense. You say people shall use a Win-only solution (what
will run on Windows, but nowhere else), instead using a cross-platform
solution, that will run anywhere, also on Windows.

If really 99% of all PCs run with Windows, it's no problem to use a
cross-platform solution...it will run on Windows, too. By using a
cross-platform solution you *aren't losing* the Windows market, you just add
some additional markets to it. By using a Win-only solution, you lose every
other market right from the start.

IOW throughout your whole post you haven't mentioned a single argument that
would speak against cross-platform development. Not to mention that VB uses a
Virtual Machine working in a similar manner like Java. So when you use VB, you
can also use Java.

> Use OBJECT tags in your HTML

Object tags got created by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and have nothing
to do with Micro$oft in any way. They are part of HTML4 standard, which is no
Micro$oft standard, but a cross-platform standard (like all HTML standards).

Actually without cross-platform standards and cross-platform software, the
INTERNET wouldn't even exist, since Micro$oft hasn't created it! Guess with
what software the first Internet servers were running and with what software
they are still running?

All great inventions that you use every day are cross-platform standards. MP3,
MPEG, HTML, EMail, Usenet, etc. If we had waited until MS had created all those
things, we would still be in computer stone age.

> use ASP (especially the new ASPX and the webforms
> i find XTREMELY interresting...).

You aren't working for Micro$oft, are you?
Why should anyone use ASP?
My webserver doesn't even support that, because it runs on Unix...oh, what a
coincident, must be one of the 0.000001% of servers that don't use Win32, just
like all the other servers I used in past (including the router/file server I'm
running at home right now). If really there are only 0.000001% of non Win32
PCs, I must have used every single one of them up to now.

I use rather PHP, JSP or SSI when I'll need such a technology (all supported by
my webhost).

BTW, isn't it funny that non-Windows PCs always support a wide variation of
different technologies, while Windows PCs usually are limited to a single one,
which always comes from Micro$oft?!?

> This is my opinion and I realize this will probably become my own social
> suicide, but fact is that every successfule software dealer don't give a
> shit about anything but windows...

All the computer stores in my town sell Linux (it's in every shop window), only
very few sell Windows (why should they? Most people got a free copy with their
PC).

In some countries there are even more Unix/Linux PCs than Windows PCs. Please
never assume that what is valid in your country is valid for the rest of the
world as well. You are not living alone on that planet and your country isn't
the only one that exists or that is important.

Finally, all the companies that were using Win-only solutions til today are now
making their solutions cross-platform (as they realized that they are missing
an important market otherwise) and that is costing them million of dollars, not
to mention a huge amount of work. If they had use cross-platform solutions
right from the start, they wouldn't have all those troubles right now.

IOW you suggestion to companies is pretty stupid, since what will save them a
few bucks right now will cost them million of dollars in a few years. And all
the *really* big software companies that exist are all writing cross-platform
applications, the ones that create stuff for Windows only are usually the
smaller, less important software companies.

Even Microsoft is selling their MS Office for Macintosh, just like they have a
Mac version of IE and if Linux's popularity will raise a lot the next two
years, I bet that they will also write IE and MS Office for Linux (of course
not open source ... but not everything that exists for Linux is open source).

BTW cross-platform development has nothing to do with Java you can also develop
cross-platform applications in other languages. There are lot's of C libraries
that exist for more than just a single plattform and it's always a good idea to
use those instead of Win32 libraries that exist for Windows only. 


And _THAT'S_ my opinion!

-- 
TGOS

| We've done so much, with so little, such a long time,
| that we now can achieve everything with nothing.
        - RTL2