From: mdirk@sympatico.ca   
      
   When I use the term 'Virtual Reality' ,  I refer to a type of computer game,   
   which the player can imagine being immersed in. Whereas when some Science   
   Fiction uses the term, an interface is required, which projects the virtual   
   world in a 360º panorama around the 'player' or 'user'. Such interfaces   
   exist in a limited way, and are generically called VR Interfaces, etc.. A   
   person can put a set of goggles on in some cases, which through stereoscopic   
   vision project a three-dimensional world, similarly to how the old   
   Viewmaster toys did, and when the user turns his head, this scene turns in   
   the opposite direction (hopefully with as little lag as possible), so that   
   the simulated 3D world seems to stand still around him or her.   
      
   But because my definition of Virtual Reality is any type of computer program   
   into which a user can place himself through imagination, I don't actually   
   see any need for that full, 360º interface. To me, it's totally sufficient,   
   and actually more robust, to create a computer game which stays on one side   
   of the computer's flat screen physically, because my goal also implies that   
   some player will think about the game enough, to do the rest in his own   
   head. And that means, that a text-adventure / role-playing game from the   
   late 1970s ,  where the actual interface consists of only words, can also   
   qualify as Virtual Reality to me, as long as it's written well enough really   
   to grab the player's attention.   
      
   At the same time, when I'm writing about a Graphical User Interface, I mean   
   a familiar Window on the screen of a computer, through which people already   
   operate computer programs, and GUI is the generic term for this in   
   programming textbooks, because the real workings of the computer today are   
   not really graphical, but rather still based on pieces of code. I might also   
   mean the advanced cockpits of some airplanes. The purpose of a GUI is to   
   allow people to use a program, or some device, including programs which I   
   might write at some point in C++ ,  without the user needing to concern   
   himself or herself with the actual code and without having to type in   
   commands.   
      
   It's conceivable though, considering how people talk on the Space Channel,   
   that some people who receive my email might think that when I use the term   
   GUI, or "Graphical User Interface", that a user is somehow supposed to melt   
   into the computer. Even though the real world follows rules just a little   
   bit more, still, in the year 2004 ,  and that I state the rules of GUI   
   design more explicitly.   
      
   Dirk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)