[gurps] Building a VehicleML

Tue Feb 17 13:36:26 CST 2009

So, when you say it can be processed by computer, how are you looking for it
to be processed?  Entry into a database of some sort?  Some means for the
HTML readers to be able to process the data in the file?  

-----Original Message-----
From: gurpsnet-l-bounces at sjgames.com [mailto:gurpsnet-l-bounces at sjgames.com]
On Behalf Of Onno Meyer
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:27 PM
To: The GURPSnet mailing list
Subject: Re: RE: [gurps] Building a VehicleML

> That having been said, if you were to embark upon teaching a little 
> about what is involved with XML, what it can do, and how it might be 
> generally helpful not only to someone such as yourself or Tom, but to 
> someone like myself - you might generate enough interest for me to 
> start looking into what is involved and trying to deal with it myself 
> ;)

XML is a very structured way of writing text into files.
On the one hand, XML is clear enough to be written and read by humans, and
on the other hand it is structured enough to be processed by computers.

XML consists of nodes, which may be nested. Consider a book consisting of
one or more chapters, which in turn consist of one or more sections. 

book
  chapter
    section
    section
  chapter
    section

To make the nesting clear, each node is represented by two parts, the
opening tag and the closing tag. Opening tags are <name> and closing tags
are </name>. So the book above would be 

<book>
  <chapter>
    <section>
    </section>
    <section>
    </section>
  </chapter>
  <chapter>
    <section>
    </section>
  </chapter>
</book>

Which nodes can appear, and where, depends on the dialect of XML. For
example, in html one of the first nodes must be <html>, and it contains a
<head>. html is a well known XML dialect, used by web browsers (and web
designers) all over the world. 

Tom and I are thinking about our very own XML dialect for GURPS vehicles and
starships. It won't be as powerful and influential as html, of course, but I
hope to do a halfway professional job :-)
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