[Oberon] Excerpted from Croquet mailing list with question.

[Søren Renner]

 ITEM: XML space description

LEAD: David A. Smith

 DESCRIPTION:
A common space description file format in XML to allow the open
 source and QWAQ clients to read stored copies of each other's worlds.
Minimizing the size of objects being replicated is important so that
spaces may be saved compactly and new user joining the replicated
 space can do so quickly.

In practice this means meshes and textures should be referred to by
 name in the replicated space, and fetched by each client
independently of joining the space. By fetching these large objects
independently of the replicated space, clients can maintain locally
 cached copies which speeds joining the space. An XML description of
the space also simplifies programatically generating space
 descriptions, and aids in integration with various search engine
technologies.

Moreover, an XML-based space description also allows for the
possibility of a croquet browser written in another language or based
on a different code base. However, this implies changes to the
rendering engine since we would be moving textures/mesh definitions
outside the replicated space. QWAQ's forums have shown that this
 approach has many virtues. Ultimately we might want to use an
extended version of Collada - but the first step would be to align
 the Open source and QWAQ code bases so we can read each other's world
definitions.

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ITEM: Robust Jabber client:

LEAD: Mark McCahill

DESCRIPTION:
Improve current Jabber client to include SSL TLS support
(perhaps via OpenSSL plugin?). This work can happen in the open
source arena and is relatively independent of changes to space
description formats.

The current Jabber client does not support SSL transport level security
and needs to - since most Jabber servers require SSL TLS. Supporting an
open standard IM/Chat is a key for interoperability with the chat world,
and ideally would allow cross world chat with other environments
 (such as Second Life) should those worlds decide to do the right
thing and support a standards based chat protocol for inter world
chatting. We also need this work so that we can advertise presence
outside Croquet using an open standards-base approach

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Question:

Should we make a voxel raytraced chat application? The Croquet and
SL/OpenSim projects are attracting much interest, and I happen to have
some raytracing code lying around...