Yes, the very simple LDRAW syntax in fact also was very appealing to me when I joined - remember
that you can model anything in it, not just LEGO. The file format is also somewhat minimalistic,
just lines, triangles, quads, and transformation matrices referencing other files.
I hardly can think of anything smaller. (Maybe leaving away the quads and just using triangles.)
To contribute my 0.02 EUR to the spaces discussion, I'd like to say:
I think that at times when James invented the format, whitespace simply could be used just everywhere
to simply separate the numbers.
It seems to me that only after that some habits of putting spaces somewhere
or not have evolved, and people have developed personal taste and preference.
My request would be to everybody discussing this to not stick to personal taste here,
but instead find the solution which is the most flexible and powerful, i.e.,
which allows the space-lovers to use them, and the space-haters to not use them.
This, and the analogy between using spaces between the numbers in all lines
leads me clearly to argument towards allowing even leading spaces.
And yes, even in the first line - why not?
Even tools wanting to check the file type (e.g. by looking for the "0") stay simple.
Instead of checking the first byte only, they need to skip leading whitespace, and _then_ seek the "0".
Not so complicated, huh?
So I cannot see a real reason why we should put restrictions on us here.
However, we can at the same time of course establish a policy
that for official files from the PT, we will not be using leading whitespaces
(felt 99% of our files stick to that rule already).
Note the difference between the file format spec, and the preferred style of files on the PT. That's two (2) things.
that you can model anything in it, not just LEGO. The file format is also somewhat minimalistic,
just lines, triangles, quads, and transformation matrices referencing other files.
I hardly can think of anything smaller. (Maybe leaving away the quads and just using triangles.)
To contribute my 0.02 EUR to the spaces discussion, I'd like to say:
I think that at times when James invented the format, whitespace simply could be used just everywhere
to simply separate the numbers.
It seems to me that only after that some habits of putting spaces somewhere
or not have evolved, and people have developed personal taste and preference.
My request would be to everybody discussing this to not stick to personal taste here,
but instead find the solution which is the most flexible and powerful, i.e.,
which allows the space-lovers to use them, and the space-haters to not use them.
This, and the analogy between using spaces between the numbers in all lines
leads me clearly to argument towards allowing even leading spaces.
And yes, even in the first line - why not?
Even tools wanting to check the file type (e.g. by looking for the "0") stay simple.
Instead of checking the first byte only, they need to skip leading whitespace, and _then_ seek the "0".
Not so complicated, huh?
So I cannot see a real reason why we should put restrictions on us here.
However, we can at the same time of course establish a policy
that for official files from the PT, we will not be using leading whitespaces
(felt 99% of our files stick to that rule already).
Note the difference between the file format spec, and the preferred style of files on the PT. That's two (2) things.