Essentials from the Virtual Bookshelf
By Andrea L. Ames
Arecent search of the Amazon.com bookstore site yielded a list of 21 books written on VRML. Considering the still somewhat-esoteric nature of the topic, that's quite a few. So, how do you pick those that best suit your needs?
To help guide you in your quest for additional VRML knowledge, I've reviewed nearly all of the 2.0-compliant VRML reference books, user guides, and tutorials available (with one notable exception). This month I'll discuss the five I find most technically accurate, engagingly written, and well organized. They include a tutorial, reference books, and a user's guide.
Tutorials help you get started quickly and learn one way to complete a task. They focus on one or more "typical" user tasks and one process or set of procedures to complete each of those tasks. If you can accomplish the same end using other means, it may or may not be spelled out in a tutorial. Tutorials are particularly useful for beginners or readers who want a quick, basic understanding of the subject.
Reference books cover their topics comprehensively, addressing all the details. If there are three ways to do something, the reference book will provide everything you need to know about all three. Entries are usually alphabetical, so you can find information easily. On the downside, if you don't know what you're looking for, you probably won't find it easily. Reference entries are typically named after software components or classes/functions of the language or whatever the reference is addressing.
