Why would I do such a thing?

I do a lot of work with XML and XSLT. Since XSLT 2 came along my horizons have dropped away and all I can see is clear, deepening, blue sky and quite possibly the edge of space.

I have a deep love for and interest in computer graphics and love working with XML. So you'd be right in thinking that I'm also quite taken by both SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and X3D (XML encoding of VRML).

So how do you get from there to an implementation of the Reyes rendering architecture. Well, I'm keen to see if XSLT 2's tree and sequence processing abilities would enable me to apply multiple transformations to an input model that would carry-out the necessary processing steps identified by the Reyes algorithm. The end result would be a sequence of samples from the image that would represent the rasterization of the original vector graphic (SVG or X3D).

Now as you may know, XML does not support the generation of binary data. But, it doesn't stop you creating sequences of integer values (pixel values) that can be Base64 encoded prior to output in a file. If you create the right sequences you can decode the Base64 file to obtain a binary file, which in this case could be a TIFF image file, of the image you are attepmting to render.

If you are still asking yourself why, then all I can say is:

'Think how much you can learn from trying!'