Unit Cube and Canonical Cube are Different

If you’ve ever found yourself casually tossing around terms like “unit cube” and “canonical cube”, assuming they’re interchangeable, you’re not alone. I’ve been there too. But here’s the thing: they’re not the same.

Or even dramatic, the term “canonical cube” might not exist🤯. Do you really mean “canonical view volume”? This kind of confusion is a classic example of how jargon can obscure meaning rather than clarify it.

The “unit cube” is a well-defined concept: a cube with side lengths of 1, typically centered at the origin in 3D space. It appears in the textbook like A Mathematical Space Odyssey: Solid Geometry in the 21st Century.

The “canonical view volume” is a term I heard from 📖Fundamentals of Computer Graphics where the word “canonical” means something arbitrarily chosen for convenience in Computer Graphics.

So, next time you’re tempted to throw around a term like “canonical xxx”, pause⏸️. Ask yourself: Do I really know what this means? And more importantly, will the person I’m talking to understand it the same way?

Clarity is worth the effort since canonical means something arbitrary. Use a convention agreed upon, like a defined interface that we communicate.