[news.groups] Change of name?

adrianho@barkley.berkeley.edu (Adrian J Ho) (05/25/91)

[I'm crossposting this to all the graphics groups to stir up more
discussion and to keep interested parties up-to-date (sorta).
Actual discussion, however, should be done in news.groups -- I've
redirected followups accordingly.]

I'm starting to think comp.graphics.research was an ill-chosen name,
especially since:

1) I've hardly seen any research-related postings in any of the
graphics groups, and most of them seem to fall within the scope of
comp.graphics.visualization or sci.virtual-worlds.

2) On the other hand, I've seen a significant amount of graphics
_programming_ Q&A and debate, which (IMHO) threatens to be drowned in
a deluge of requests for GIF viewers and XYZ->ABC convertors.

Based on these observations, I think comp.graphics.programmer might be
a better name for the new group, with a corresponding change in the
charter.  Something like this:

----------
Newsgroup Name: comp.graphics.programmer

Moderated: Yes (moderator to be determined)

Charter: This newsgroup is a forum for the discussion of graphics
         programming issues, techniques and specifics (ie. questions
         on flood fill techniques are acceptable, requests for an
         XYZ->ABC graphics file format convertor are not).
----------

Comments are welcome, especially those that:

a) argue against any changes
b) further refine the charter
c) suggest alternatives
d) argue against moderation (yes, this issue isn't dead yet)

Flames will be Halon'd on sight.  8-)

Remember, the deadline for discussion is Jun 16, so get those comments
in now!  8-)

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adrian Ho, EECS (pronounced "eeks!") Dept.		Phone: (415) 642-5563
UC Berkeley					adrianho@barkley.berkeley.edu

aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk (Paul Crowley) (05/26/91)

In article <ADRIANHO.91May24235052@barkley.berkeley.edu> adrianho@barkley.berkeley.edu (Adrian J Ho) writes:
>Charter: This newsgroup is a forum for the discussion of graphics
>         programming issues, techniques and specifics (ie. questions
>         on flood fill techniques are acceptable, requests for an
>         XYZ->ABC graphics file format convertor are not).

I'd like to see a tighter charter, to exclude questions like "How do I
implement double buffering on a VGA display?"  In other words, I think
that questions specific to a given platform should be excluded.

I'd like to know what people think about these questions, on a rough
scale from bad to good:

"Anyone got any GOOD gifs, I mean GOOD gifs?"

"How do I convert GIFs to Postscript files?"

"What's the format of GIFs anyway?  I'm writing a program that
produces/reads them."

"How do I do double buffering on a VGA display?"

"Anyone got C code that implements a BSD tree?"

"Shouldn't there be an 'Uglyness' field in Renderman?"

"How do I check if a ray intersects a height field without waiting two years?"

"I've just worked out an algorithm for radiosity that makes it fast
enough to do in real time on an XT."
                                         ____
\/ o\ Paul Crowley aipdc@castle.ed.ac.uk \  /
/\__/ Part straight. Part gay. All queer. \/