Re: [mmox] mmox Digest, Vol 2, Issue 121

["zedmaster" <[e-mail]>]

The term "landmark" was used in some early VR systems - a landmark was just 
a "named" reference to a coordinate system - could be fixed or can be 
relative to another (potentially moving) object.  Just like a hyperlink 
(favourite) you clicked on a landmark and you moved to that location.  Tt 
was called "landmark" because these systems pre-dated web browsers, so there 
wasnt any notion of "favourite" at the time.

Moving landmarks can be useful, but as you point out, you need to be careful 
as to where you anchor your landmark - in truth, you really should have set 
the landmark on the hotdog stall, not Coit Tower.  The hotdog stall is more 
likely to be the moving target here, and if the hot dogs were that good, 
you'd want to visit that stall wherever he was located.

-dirk


----- Original Message ----- 
>>
>>     Do we really want to use the term "landmark" in interop speak?
>>     That sounds a little too SL specific? Else, would you define what
>>     a "landmark" really means?
>>
>>
>>
>> The term "landmark" is in extremely wide use in many applications that
>> involve maps or addresses, as well as in real life
>
> I know of no serious GIS application that uses the term.
>
> But the use in the real world is very different. In the real world, the
> Coit Tower cannot move. In the virtual world, that's just a few mouse
> clicks. If I had a delicious hot dog right next to the Coit Tower, and
> the Coit Tower then moved, in real-world speak, the Coit Tower landmark
> is no longer near anything it was near when I set that as a Landmark.
>
> In general, I like the term "address" more, because it's more akin to,
> say, GPS coordinates. Also, when using Google Maps (arguably the most
> used GIS system ever), they are called Favorites.
>
> But this brings up another use case point: Is the "landmark" referencing
> an object (that can move), or an address (that can't)? And does it even
> matter? Maybe these location favorites can simply be URLs with a known
> type, and the actual words of the URL are specific to the system that
> minted them. Then the only information that is important to the
> destination system is:
> 1) Knowing that this is a location URL, and not some other kind of URL
> 2) Some user-visible description (icon, title, movie, sound, whatever)
> for presentation
> 3) The process by which one of these URLs get turned into an established
> session