WARNING FlightGear / JSBSim changes

As has been mentioned, JSBSim has been undergoing major improvements over the past year
(see the newsletters) centering on added capabilities and improved XML "well-formed-ness".
The majority of those improvements have been completed and tested, both in a standalone,
scripted mode, and in the previous release of FlightGear itself.

We will be moving the new code into FlightGear development CVS shortly. My goals during
that process are as follows:

 A-1) Don't break FlightGear compilation for other FDMs.

2) Provide replacement models for JSBSim aircraft as soon as practical.
3) Make sure that existing JSBSim aircraft models function correctly  as soon as possible.
4) Provide documentation on the new format, and a converter.

We've done all we can in the way of testing and validation of our code prior to the next
step. However, once that is accomplished and refined, I think we'll see some real benefits
to this.

The new config file spec (the new "format") is pretty nice. It was designed to be
compatible with the emerging AIAA standard for aircraft flight model exchange, to be
called AeroML (see: http://daveml.nasa.gov). I have heard from at least two other flight
model programmers who have expressed a desire to use the JSBSim config file format as
their own spec. So, I believe the new spec (v2.0 - that's the version number for the
config spec - not JSBSim itself) may lead to more aircraft eventually being available for
FlightGear and other sims.

I'm not sure exactly when the changes will be incorporated into FlightGear (I have to
discuss this with the other JSBSim developers - particularly Erik). But, this serves as a
heads-up and an open period for questions and comments.

Jon
--
Jon S. Berndt
Project Coordinator
JSBSim Flight Dynamics Model
http://www.jsbsim.org



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