[gsoc] Simulink import

[xendo]

Before writing a draft of my proposal I would like to make sure I'm on
the right way. So I will mix your wiki entry with my ideas:

1. Parse the MDL file and reconstruct an equivalent diagram.
There are already solutions to that part of the project, they need a
closer look and analysis of potential usage. Efficiency should not be
problem in here, but we have to be careful and avoid unnecessary
dependencies. So maybe rewriting parser in C++ will be the best idea.
All of this should be decided during Community bonding period.

2. Implement some compatibility patterns for evaluation functions and
block representations.
Here my idea is to create XML files containing migration schema. XML
will be clean, easy editable solution. Each Xcos part will have it's
own compatibility pattern file (separate files for general parameters,
mathematical operations, thermo-hydraulics and so on), adding simulink
import capabilities to your own custom palette will require writing
XML file describing differences with it's simulink counterpart. The
simulink functions will be mapped on xcos functions by those xml files
using C++ module. It would be great if those compatibility patterns
allowed (of course after writing suitable module) also simulink
export.

3. Validate the approach by evaluating diagrams compatibility.
It's important to create clean log files from each import attempt as
early as possible. It will make community feedback possible, and
testing during development much easier. It can be very hard to
automatically evaluate simulation results, even if import is
successful the outcome may differ (sometimes it could be caused by
different solver construction, numerical errors, and sometimes by
import error...). Here I have question, should the automatic
verification of the correctness be the part of the import
functionality?

I've read the How to apply to the GSOC wiki entry, but I'm not sure
how big should my proposal be. In description of the technical
solution part you wrote that "The more, the better.", should I prepare
some examples of c++ code, or xml file structure?

P.S.
sory for my english, it's not as fluent as I would like it to be, but
I hope it won't be a problem.