{"action":"opened","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/DavidBrainard/RenderToolbox3/issues/58","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/DavidBrainard/RenderToolbox3/issues/58/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/DavidBrainard/RenderToolbox3/issues/58/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/DavidBrainard/RenderToolbox3/issues/58/events","html_url":"https://github.com/DavidBrainard/RenderToolbox3/issues/58","id":54595508,"number":58,"title":"Use XML in Mappings and Conditions Files?","user":{"login":"benjamin-heasly","id":1950775,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/1950775?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly","html_url":"https://github.com/benjamin-heasly","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/benjamin-heasly/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/DavidBrainard/RenderToolbox3/labels/question","name":"question","color":"cc317c"}],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":0,"created_at":"2015-01-16T16:35:40Z","updated_at":"2015-01-16T16:35:40Z","closed_at":null,"body":"Currently RenderToolbox3 uses custom text formats for mappings and conditions files.  In some ways these are \"natural\" and easy for humans to edit.\r\n\r\nBut we often want to manipulate them programmatically as well.  We have custom parsing and printing code that allows us to create or edit conditions files in memory.  We have custom parsing code for mappings files, but no good way to write parsed mappings files back to file.\r\n\r\nInstead of developing and maintaining these custom parsers and printers, why not use XML?  We would define an XML format/schema for conditions files and one for mappings files.  Then we could take advantage of existing XML tools for reading, writing, and editing the files.  These tools would include Java-based JDOM as well as RenderToolbox3 SceneDOM utilities."}}