How to define complex descriptions?

[Giuseppe Bilotta <bourbaki@bigfoot.com>]

Well, I have this enhancements request, and it's about
descriptions. Precisely, I am thinking of descriptions with
attributes. It should then be possible to list the descriptions by
attribute. An example will probably show what I mean.

For those in Role-Playing Game the best examples are "spells".
When describing a spell, you will need:

Spell name, Class, Level, Sphere,
Range, Components, Duration, Casting Time
Area, Save, Description

It should then be possible to say
=====================
\definecomplexdescription[spell][spells]%
                         [class,level,sphere,range,comp,duration,time,area,save]

\spell[detectmagic][class=Cleric,level=1,sphere=Divination,range=Touch,
       comp={V,S},duration={1 round/level},time={1 round},
       area={1 creature},save=None]{Detect magic}

       Description of this spell, and all the info we want to put
       here, just like a standard description.
=====================

and there should be a way to set up the way this is typeset. We
could even have it with long and short descriptions ({Detect
magic}{short, one par desc}{long, multipar desc}), and the reuse
them ... ?

Typesetting could be defined through templates:
=====================
\startspelltemplate[longspell]
{\bf <name>} ({\it <sphere>})
{\bf Class:} <class>
{\bf Level:} <level>
{\bf Sphere:} <sphere>
{\bf Range:} <range>
{\bf Components:} <comp>
{\bf Duration:} <duration>
{\bf Casting Time:} <time>
{\bf Area Affected:} <area>
{\bf Save:} <save>

\begingroup
<longdesc>
\endgroup
\stopspelltemplate

\usespelltemplate[longspell]

\usespell[detectmagic] % or any other
                       % appropriate name
                       % for the command
=====================

Note how a similar approach (template) could be used, e.g., for
epigraphs. Don't know yet how to insert conditional printout (that
is, what to do when one attribute is not defined). Maybe pictures
and all the stuff that may be accessible through external
databases could/should make use of the same code?

It should also be possible to say

\completelistofspells[criterium=bylevel]

or

\completelistofspells[criterium={byclass,bylevel}]

and have appropriate lists be automatically created (with setups to
specify how much information should be put in the lists).

Is this possible (yet)? Is it feasible? Ideas? Comments?

Shall I work on it? Do you think it will be hard to implement?

Side question: is it possible to have XML and TeX intermixed?
(precisely, XML parts in a TeX file)

--
Giuseppe "Oblomov" Bilotta