[ODE] XML ODE Data Interchange Format (revision 5)

[Shaul Kedem]

Hi,
 I'd suggest either using commas or not, using both
formats is very confusing for a parser (and in some
cases, where the new line is not defined for some
reason, impossible). Yeah, I know it's CDATA and it
shouldn't matter, trust me, it does.

I'd suggest going with comma delimited arrays all the
way, not using the new line as part of the convention
at all (in the case of conversion matrices there are
added '[' and ']', so it's fine)

Shaul

--- William Denniss <lists at omegadelta.net> wrote:
> Lets go with the first option, the <v> tags are
> hardly necessary - and
> it is the smallest size of the three.
> 
> I agree that not everything must be represented in
> XML.  In some cases
> it makes life easier, but for a simple array of
> numbers, it's hardly
> necessary.
> 
> 
> How's this for the spec:
> 
> Vertices are represented as a one dimensional array
> of floats whose
> length is three times the vertex count (i.e. there
> are three floats for
> each vertex).  The data is delimited by commas and
> new lines, spaces are
> ignored.
> 
> Thus:
> 
> <vertices>
> 0,1,2,1,2,3
> </vertices>
> 
> <vertices>
> 0,1,2
> 1,2,3
> </vertices>
> 
> and
> 
> <vertices>
> 0  , 1.0, 2
> 1.0, 2.1, 3
> </vertices>
> 
> are all valid.
> 
> I guess whatever method we adopt for the vertices,
> we should adopt for
> the matrix representation, ie.
> 
> <matrix>
> 0,1,2,3
> 4,5,6,3
> 4,2,1,2
> 3,4,5,6
> </matrix>
> 
> 
> Do you think the format attribute is really needed
> when we know exactly
> ahead of time what the data should be?  I don't want
> to make the job of
> writing a parser any harder than it need be.
> 
> Thanks for your feedback.
> 
> Will.
> 
> On Sun, 2004-03-14 at 03:07, Jon Watte wrote:
> > Another approach is to use the CDATA for vertices:
> > 
> > <vertices format="x,y,z">
> > 0,1,2
> > 1,2,3
> > </vertices>
> > 
> > Also, putting the x, y and z as attributes of the
> "v" tag seems a poor
> > choice if file size is what you want. If you don't
> like using
> > linefeeds or other separators in your CDATA for
> some reason, try this:
> > 
> > <vertices format="x,y,z">
> > <v>1,2,3</v>
> > <v>2,3,4</v>
> > </vertex>
> > 
> > Which may be a happy medium. Anyway, on previous
> work, I've found that
> > putting the template/format of vertex/array data
> in the description is
> > a Really Good Thing, because you WILL want to add
> more attributes that
> > are only valid in certain arrays.
> > 
> > Just because XML is structured doesn't mean that
> all data should be
> > accessible using the XML structure (attributes and
> elements). CDATA is
> > there for a reason, you know :-)
> >
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > 			/ h+
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ode-bounces at q12.org
> [mailto:ode-bounces at q12.org]On Behalf Of Chris
> > Gregan
> > Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 7:05 AM
> > Cc: ode at q12.org
> > Subject: Re: [ODE] XML ODE Data Interchange Format
> (revision 5)
> > 
> > 
> > I am using my own XML format to represent physical
> geometry in an FPS. 
> > For large tri-mesh style meshes I found it to be a
> good idea to use a 
> > "v" tag instead of the full "vertex" to keep the
> file size down. 
> > Similarly for indices. I think it is still clear
> what is intended. I 
> > haven't followed this discussion too closely so
> apologies if this has 
> > been mentioned already.
> > 
> > <vertices>
> >     <v x="0" y="1" z="1" />
> >     <v x="1" y="2" z="2" />
> >     <v x="2" y="0" z="1" />
> > </vertices>
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > Chris Gregan
> -- 
> William Denniss - will@ http://tanksoftware.com/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ODE mailing list
> ODE at q12.org
> http://q12.org/mailman/listinfo/ode


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
http://mail.yahoo.com