[ODE] GUI Editor, to XML or not?

[DjArcas]

Seconded on all points. All the games companies I've worked for use XML for
their intermediary data format, obviously compiled to a binary for the final
game release.

Except possibly BF1942, which might explain it's loading time ;)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jani Laakso" <jani.laakso at itmill.com>
To: <ODE at q12.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 8:31 AM
Subject: [ODE] GUI Editor, to XML or not?


> My opinion for an export goes still for XML, if you know basics of XML
> (and XSL), you get things done very quickly. And in bonus, structures
> tend to be well defined even when things later grow more complex.
>
> For developers this would mean that everyone can then use XSL (like
> xpath expressions) in any imaginable way to extract simulation parts or
> modify simulation data before inserting it to my application.
>
> Here's couple important points more imho:
>
> 1. Integration to custom applications
> -I would not like to construct totally custom parsers from ground up to
> read editor data into my application, I'd exploit existing XML tools
> here (XSL, DOM or even SAX).
>
> 2. Transforming
> -I would not like to programmatically convert one simulation format to
> another, I'd use XSL here.
> -Example, transform simulation X to simulation Y: increase all jeep cars
> geoms mass by %12 and extract only basic simulation parameters + jeep
> cars. I'd use XSL here than to create custom converters. Add lot's of
> custom examples here.
>
> 3. Debugging
> -problems are easier to solve, xml is easier to comphrehend
>
> This format is meant for developers on development stage, so it should
> be extensible and easy to use in all kind of situations. On production
> platforms one can convert XML files into developer's own custom format
> if needed.
>
> A physics editor that is meant for constructing complex simulation
> setups for ODE, Novodex.., I'd go for XML when exporting / importing
> e.g. bodies definitions to / from a file. I do not know how similar
> these two are but there could be possibility to do one XML
> implementation for an physics editor and then use plain XSL to export
> simulation data to ODE, Novodex.. users. It might be that this is not
> suitable but author's of physics editors know this better than me.
>
> The first impression for XML world can be quite disturbing, but once you
> get into it and know where it's suited best, you'll love it. Learning
> basic XML and XSL (+XSLT) is simple.
>
> Summary, there exists this XML/XSL and bunch of other tools for various
> platforms, let's exploit them :)
>
>
> Comments are welcomed, Jani.