XMLlab : multimedia publication of simulations applets using XML and Scilab

We present an XML-based simulation authoring environment. The proposed description language allows to describe mathematical objects such as systems of ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations in two dimensions, or simple curves and surfaces. It also allows to describe the parameters on which these objects depend. This language is independent of the target software and allows to ensure the perennity of author's work, as well as collaborative work and content reuse. The actual implementation of XMLlab allows to run the generated simulations within the open source mathematical software Scilab, either locally when Scilab is installed on the client machines, or on thin clients running a simple web browser, when XMLlab and Scilab are installed on a distant server running a standard HTTP server.