[ODE] New ODE GUI Editor available : ezphysics.org

[Billy Zelsnack]

If you're going to lead a file format attempt, I can picture three
major
religous issues. 1. binary or text which is already showing its head.
2. if
text, then xml or not. 3. scope.

My personal opinion is that it should be xml and have no tags besides
what
is in the ODE api. It should be the ODE format, not a general
physics/simulation format. The naming conventions should reflect this.
Anything fancy like behaviors or anything else are some other format.

btw. I don't really like xml, but it does provide a known starting
point.

Some xml issues are how to define the objects. With custom tags or with
types. (sorry, i don't know the proper xml terminology)

<hinge id="left_elbow" jointGroupId="blah">
    <anchor value="0 0 0"/>
    <axis value="0 1 0"/>
</hinge>

vs

<object type="hinge" id="left_elbow" jointGroupId="blah" >
    <attribute name="anchor" value="0 0 0"/>
    <attribute name="axis" value="0 1 0"/>
</object>

or maybe a hybrid.

On a side xml note. I like to think of xml elements like a constructor
with
a body. In the examples above would be like this in pseudo c++.

someHinge=new hinge(jointGroupId="blah");
someHinge.anchor="0 0 0";
someHinge.axis="0 1 0";

All elements in the constructor exist at the time of creation where all
elements in the body are only added as they are parsed. This shows its
usefulness once you start having child objects. The constructor gives a
parent object enough information to create itself. As each child object
is
then parsed and created, it is added to the parent.


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