Re: [kidsgames] Word database

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Kidsgames Project Coordinator - Jeff Waddell wrote:

> -->I think there are a few things I'm really going to need help with are: a
> -->recording mechanism, maybe one that can be used from inside of forms for
> -->enter the data, what is a good format, mp3 wav...
> 
> I personally like .au (Sun audio format, but I'm not sure the status of
> that format)
> 
> I can't recommend (even though I'd like to) .mp3 or .wav because they have
> patent issues.

MP3 is very costly (in time and code complexity) to decode - it's compression
is also optimised for music, not voice.  I don't recommend it.

WAV is nasty to decode and being a Mircosoft product is liable to change
with every new release of Windoze.  I don't like it - but it is a pretty
universal standard - and you should probably support it.

AU is OK too.

> --> Another thing is the
> -->image files format? pcx png gif????
> 
> I recommend AGAINST gif due to the Unisys patent fiasco.  PNG should be
> great, and if somebody submits a gif, it can't be too hard to pull it into
> the gimp and resave it as .png before it is made globally avabilable can
> it?

Choosing GIF could be very bad news. If a GIF is generated from a non-licensed
program (eg GIMP) then if you have that file on your web page - you could
be liable for a $25,000 license fee to UniSys...don't go there!

PNG is an excellent choice.  There is a convenient portable library for
reading and writing them, they are suitable for the WWW and are nicely
compressed with a LOSSLESS compression scheme.  You might also consider
'MNG' - which allows simple animations to be stored in the file just as
GIF does - and which is based on PNG.  Both PNG and MNG come from the
OpenSource community and are FREE in every sense.

JPEG is another obvious standard - but beware because JPEG is a LOSSY
compression scheme - the image you get out is not as good quality as
the one you put in.  This isn't too noticable for photos - but for simple
'cartoonish' images (such as this project is most likely to use), JPEG
produces nasty 'ringing' artifacts around sharp colour transitions.
JPEG also doesn't allow an 'alpha' channel - so no transparency - also
no GIF-style animation.

PCX is obsolete....let's not go there.

Another format I like is '.rgb' - or 'SGI' format.  It's VERY easy to
read and write - allows for monochrome images and images with transparency.
No animation features though.
 
TIFF may be worthy of investigation - it has a lot of obscure varients
though and some 'extensions' make it hard to read well.

There are a variety of X-windows formats - but they are not well used
or supported under Windoze...so let's not go there.

BMP is the commonest Windoze format - but just like WAV, it changes with
every new version of Windoze and is not too well documented.

As for the format of the database itself, I'd STRONGLY recommend
that we go with XML - which is a spin-off of HTML and which is going
to become a big-time standard for web-based databases.  Hopefully,
most database engines will ultimately support it.

While you are thinking about standards for things like images and
sounds, why not also consider a format for 3D models.  Allowing people
to attach a 3D model to a word is going to be very important for the
future.  2D is dead!

There is one clear format for 3D in a situation like this - and it's
VRML.  This allows for animations and even simple 'behaviours' to
be attached to a model.

Conclusions:
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would recommend:

* WAV or AU for sounds.
* PNG or MNG for pictures and 2D animations.
* VRML for 3D models and animations.
* XML for the overall database structure.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker@hti.com      (work)


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