Could you update moi.idl?

 From:  Dave Morrill (DMORRILL)
2715.21 In reply to 2715.19 
> Then what is the benefit for end user ?
> Sorry scripting is not my world.

The benefit for the end user is indirect, but potentially very large.

If you look at how Michael built MoI, it really consists of two main layers:

1) A core C++ class library that implements all of the low-level NURBS functions, 3D graphics, etc. Most of the functionality of this powerful library is exposed via COM interfaces and a Javascript API to the high-level user interface layer that you see while using MoI.

2) The high-level user interface layer of MoI is (in some sense) a very specialized version of the standard Internet Explorer web browser extended with some custom controls (such as the 3D viewports and the fly-out menu controls). All of this functionality is implemented as a series of standard web pages, using HTML, CSS, Javascript and the custom MoI Javascript API.

And that's what this discussion is all about. The standard MoI user interface is really just a set of web pages that William wrote, using HTML (well-documented), CSS (well-documented), Javascript (well-documented) and the custom Javascript API to access the powerful C++ MoI class library (completely undocumented).

What I am attempting to do is to document the MoI Javascript API. With that available, any motivated MoI user with some basic Web and Javascript skills should be able to extend or modify MoI in any number of ways, which eventually translates into more cool MoI functions and capabilities for every MoI user. And perhaps most importantly (in my mind at least), it empowers the MoI user community to accomplish this without having to request Michael to add yet another item to his ever-growing ToDo list :-) . But note that having this new documentation will not allow users to implement any new feature they want. Some features require enhancements to the core C++ library, which practically speaking, only Michael can do. But that still leaves a lot of room for creating all kinds of new user-implemented features for MoI.

I hope this explanation helped...

EDITED: 14 Sep 2009 by DMORRILL