Re: [xml-dev] wacky XML

[David Megginson <dmeggin@attglobal.net>]

Simon St.Laurent wrote:

> By "interesting", I don't mean "our multi-layer transactional process
> enables businesses to fully utilize the power of web services for
> customer needs fulfillment" - I mean something off the beaten path, not
> the usual business-to-business, web content management, or publishing
> scenarios.  (I already own $GML: The Billion-Dollar Secret.)
> 
> Possibilities might include: 
> 
> * "I create model train operating sessions with XML." 

How's-about "I practice with an Open Source flight simulator almost entirely 
driven by XML":

   http://www.flightgear.org/

We use XML for defining flight dynamics, animating 3D models, setting 
weather, saving and restoring flights -- in fact, the entire internal state 
of the simulator (altitude, airspeed, and hundreds of other variables) is 
managed in an in-memory tree similar to a DOM, with facilities for getting 
and setting properties dynamically at runtime over an HTTP or telnet connection.

For example, if you want to add a new type of aircraft or even a new control 
system, you can often do it entirely in XML with no C++ coding required. 
Here's an article, thought it doesn't go into too much depth on the XML part:

   http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2003/12/11/flightgear.html

Sometimes when some dead time at a talk, I crank up FlightGear on my 
notebook, fly the Cessna around a bit on the LCD screen, and tell everyone 
that they're looking at an XML browser.


All the best,


David