What is XML

XML stands for the eXtensible Markup Language. It's a textual format that structures data. It was designed by the W3C. You can see their information about XML here.

How does SOD use XML?

SOD's strategy files are stored in XML. The textual format of XML means that they're editable by text editors like vi, emacs or even Notepad on Windows.

What do I need to know about XML to use SOD?

Nothing for basic usage. You can use SOD's GUI editor to change settings in the tutorial strategy files distributed with SOD. To actually change the tactics SOD uses, however, you'll need to edit the strategy files in a text editor. To do this, it's best to have some understanding of the structure of XML so that you understand what you're editing, and you understand what the error messages mean if something goes wrong. SOD only uses a subset of XML in its builtin processors and subsetters. There are no attributes, namespaces, and other more arcane features of XML in SOD(though you're certainly welcome to use these features in your external processors if you like). If you read through the first six examples here you should know enough about XML to understand the structure SOD strategy files.