XML parsing

So where am I up to this week.

I've not quite managed to get an xml parser working. Am currently stuck at compiler errors. Hopefully by next week I'll be beyond this and can get to work on the actual application.

I have however created an ecs.forge project at https://forge.ecs.soton.ac.uk/projects/dl1g08-tui/ this should allow version control as well as others being able to view my code.

I've also read a few background papers. Key things I learnt from Experiments with Face-To-Face Collaborative AR Interfaces by M. Billinghurst, H. Kato, K. Kiyokawa, D. Belcher, I. Poupyrev. were that we communicate much better facing each other over a table top doing something. In this way we achieve tasks quicker and the experience is generally much better than either sitting next to each other facing a screen. It also showed that using physical objects is much easier and satisfying than virtual objects.


Alternative tools for tangible interaction: a usability evaluation by Morten Fjeld, Sissel Guttormsen Schär, Domenico Signorello, Helmut Krueger. demonstrated that in terms of dealing with spatial problems physically dealing with something is best, a tui second, a 2d physical system 3rd and mathematically working out a distant fourth in terms of speed and enjoyment of using. It demonstrates that humans work much better practically in these projects rather than trying to do it theoretically. It also showed that a tui and physically were very similar in terms of usability except that users found it more enjoyable with the physical test. 


This coming week I hope to:

1. Build the parser fully (functioning!)
2. Set up dtserver using qprocess (if time though low priority)
3. Start dealing with data from dtserver (again if time)
4. Continue background research.