Introducing a second HL library?

[Mario Pascucci]

XML can be more compact if you use "attributes". To follow your example for a quad:

Code:

<quad color="4" normal="xn,yn,zn" v1="x1,y1,z1" v2="x2,y2,z2" v3="x3,y3,z3" v4="x4,y4,z4" />

You can omit attributes, or use combination, if document definition permits it:

Code:

<!-- a quad without normal and custom color with alpha -->
<quad argbcolor="c080ff80" v1="x1,y1,z1" v2="x2,y2,z2" v3="x3,y3,z3" v4="x4,y4,z4" />

It is valid XML and it isn't too "verbose".
Consider that you can automate transformation using stylesheet (XSL) and syntax checking using tools like XMLlint (verify an XML file against its XSD)

BTW, any format can be accettable, if permits easy syntax checking and well-supported parsing in many programming languages.

Mario