== September 4, 2008 ==
'''Attendees''': tef, Tom, Elaine, Greg, Eric, Conrad

=== Action Items ===
 - tef will contact Miracube to see if we can get a LCD stereo panel for testing (from previous meeting)
 - Al will decommission SGI machines on 9/15 (from previous meeting)
 - Everyone will send e-mail to Conrad indicating where Chimera app and build tree should be installed on the desktop machine (from previous  meeting)
 - Conrad will fix daily build script to copy app and build tree to desktop machines (from previous meeting)
 - Conrad will circulate candidate list of items to be removed from Chimera (item 1b)
 - Scooter will investigate what wiki technologies are suitable for (internal?) use by Chimera team (item 1d)
 - Tom will send list of (Aqua-specific) changes to Chimera since 1.2540 (item 2b)
 - Greg will implement OpenGL-feature-usage interface (item 3)
 - tef will contact Adobe for more information about embedding 3d graphics in PDF documents (item 4d)

=== Minutes ===
 1. Procedure for removing features from Chimera
  a.  Conrad suggested that after proposed list of items to remove has been agreed upon, we announce the list to the user community and wait one month for feedback.  To reach the user community, we send email to the chimera-users list and put up a short announcement on the News section of the home page.  Items that users wish to retain will return to the candidate list for removal; all other items are immediately removed after the one-month waiting period.
  b.  tef suggested that to evaluate item for removal, we assign high/medium/low for each criterion:
   - Complexity of code (Will removal save maintenance effort?)
   - Utility of feature (Are there other ways to do the same thing?)
   - Number of users of feature (Is it important to user community?)
   - Quality of implementation (Will disgruntled users outnumber satisfied users?  Will unhappy users leave Chimera for another package?)
  c. Criteria wording will be fixed so that high/low will all point in the same direction.)  Items can then be sorted into two lists: "remove" and "keep".  "Remove" list may be handled according to 1a.  "Keep" list will be prioritized.  Higher priority items are put in the "fix/enhance" list; lower priority items are in the "leave as is" list.
  d.  Tom suggested that we use a wiki-like mechanism for distributed maintenance of candidate removal list, feature request list, change log, etc.  Scooter "volunteered" to investigate available technologies.
 2. Status of Mac Aqua release
  a.  Everyone agreed that Scooter's idea of putting up Mac Aqua as a candidate release is a good one.
  b.  It was undecided whether to put up 1.2540 or a more updated version.  Tom will send e-mail describing changes made since 1.2540.
  c.  Greg will test out some changes suggested by "OpenGL on the Mac"
book that he saw at Siggraph.
 3.  Required features for OpenGL configuration interface
  a.  Conrad reiterated that the interface should allow users to disable use of individual OpenGL features.  For the initial version, the interface should provide one control per feature.  This can be made into an "Advanced" interface later on.
  b.  tef suggested that there be a "turn-all-features-off" button.
  c.  Greg mentioned that making new options take effect immediately may not be trivial, but decided that it might be doable with some extra code.
  d.  Conrad suggested that the interface be another category in the Preferences panel since the options should be saved anyway.
  e.  In answer to tef's question, Greg said that the interface will control OpenGL features that Chimera either queries for as extensions or infers from the OpenGL version number.
  f.  Conrad suggested that the interface might also contain options for controlling what type of visual Chimera should use.
 4.  Generating PDF-embeddable graphics from Chimera
  a.  tef mentioned that he was asked whether we are interested in adding Chimera feature for generating PDF-embeddable graphics.  There was some mention of using an SDK but not very much details.
  b.  Greg mentioned that there is an Adobe tool for capturing an OpenGL stream from an application and converting it to PDF-compatible format.
  c.  Tom and Conrad agreed that, ideally, the output should be created via the x3d route.  Tom further commented that previous attempts at creating data for QuicktimeVR were unsuccessful due to the lack of tools and libraries for prepping the data.
  d.  tef said he will get more information about what is required to generate PDF-embeddable graphics.