[gurps] Building a VehicleML

[Onno Meyer]

> Ok Onno, that's what *you* can do/want to do.
> 
> But such a VehicleML could be also the format to exchange vehicle
> definitions; it could be used to set up a commonly accessible vehicle
> database on the web; perhaps it could be also the new storage format for
> the official GURPS vehicle builder.
> 
> I understand that your primary goal was to have something that helps you
> to give your vehicle library a new, better, more flexible format. That's
> a good and valid intention. But then you started a public discussion
> about that format. About something that seems to be great idea, a nice
> thing for all of us, but you always limit your vision to what it can do
> for *you* only.
> 
> Obviously there is some interest in that topic here in this group, and I
> assume that there are some more people here knowing more about XML than
> just that it is something related to  computers. Perhaps a broader
> vision of the possibilities of a VehicleML could motivate some more of
> them to enter the discussion and helping you to create a common, a
> universal format for vehicle write-ups and perhaps even the necessary
> tools to handle it.
> 
> thr

Yes, but ...

* I have four more days of holiday, and I want to have something 
  to show for it before I return to the office on Monday. Not an
  updated website, maybe, but enough so that I can refine from 
  there, a working proof-of-concept. The main stumbling block 
  right now are tables in FOP.
* XML can be flexible, with optional or unevaluated nodes. So I 
  think I can go ahead with my requirements.
* I see a big difference between a vehicle display format and a 
  vehicle building format. So I don't think VehicleML can help 
  GVB.

Projects like this tend to slow after the initial flurry, and I
want to set a reachable near-term goal. 

Onno