[ODE] ODE GUI Editor #2...

[Nate W]

> If you can both read and write an ASCII format then people can do certain
> bulk changes using a text editor.  For example, if you need to change the
> stiffness of 50 springs, it'll be a 10 second operation in a text editor - but
> with most GUI's, it requires clicking on each one, popping up a dialog box,
> changing the number and clicking OK.  That can change that 10 second job
> into something unbearably tedious that could take you half an hour.

Depends on the GUI - Juice lets you select multiple objects (of the same
type) and make a property change to all of them.

> A second advantage is that it makes it much easier for you to change the
> file format in the future.  XML files are inherently extensible - and
> compatible readers know how to skip over things they don't recognise.

And with with XSL, transformations between one format to another can be
automated.  That's the thing that I find most interesting about XML in
this case.  We can have multiple editors and runtimes, and move data
between them.  It might even be possible to preserve attributes not
supported by a given editor, by generating two XML files from a single
source, editing one, and merging the two files back together.

> Doing that with a simple binary format can get quite painful.

Agreed. :-)

-- 

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
http://www.natew.com/