Ken Webb 2010-02-21T18:33:57Z
SVG is a standard format for representing scalable vector graphics. A .svg file is formatted as XML, and is hierarchical in structure.
Any Xholon application can write itself out as a .svg file, which can subsequently be read and edited by a variety of external tools. These tools include web browsers, and vector drawing software such as open-source Inkscape, OpenOffice.org Draw, and Microsoft Visio. This drawing can be used as documentation for the application, or it can be actively used as part of the runtime GUI.
The following image was created by exporting a subtree from an executing Xholon application. The .svg file was then edited using Inkscape. At runtime, the GameView node in the Xholon application reads the .svg file using the open-source SVG Salamander library. The user interacts with the game by clicking on countries and quantities. The color of a country automatically changes to show which player currently owns it. The SVG-based GUI is currently incomplete and is intended mostly as a demonstration of the ability of Xholon to generate and interact with SVG GUIs.