diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/SceneParser.java b/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/SceneParser.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9bb1873e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/SceneParser.java
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+//
+// $Id: SceneParser.java,v 1.1 2001/07/23 22:45:04 shaper Exp $
+
+package com.threerings.miso.scene;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+
+/**
+ * The SceneParser is a general interface to be implemented by classes
+ * that load scene descriptions in a particular format from a file.
+ */
+public interface SceneParser
+{
+    /**
+     * Read scene description data from the given file and construct
+     * Scene objects to suit.  Return an ArrayList of all Scene
+     * objects constructed, or a zero-length array if no scene
+     * descriptions were fully parsed.
+     */
+    public ArrayList loadScenes (String fname) throws IOException;
+}
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/XMLSceneParser.java b/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/XMLSceneParser.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..86771b30d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/XMLSceneParser.java
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+//
+// $Id: XMLSceneParser.java,v 1.1 2001/07/23 22:45:04 shaper Exp $
+
+package com.threerings.miso.scene;
+
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+
+public class XMLSceneParser implements SceneParser
+{
+    public ArrayList loadScenes (InputStream tis) throws IOException
+    {
+        // TBD
+        return null;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/XMLSceneWriter.java b/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/XMLSceneWriter.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2fa690f47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/miso/client/XMLSceneWriter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+//
+// $Id: XMLSceneWriter.java,v 1.1 2001/07/23 22:45:04 shaper Exp $
+
+package com.threerings.miso.scene;
+
+import java.io.*;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+
+import com.megginson.sax.DataWriter;
+import org.xml.sax.*;
+import org.xml.sax.helpers.AttributesImpl;
+
+import com.samskivert.util.StringUtil;
+import com.threerings.miso.Log;
+
+/**
+ * The XMLSceneWriter writes a list of Scene objects to an XML file
+ * using Megginson Technologies' XMLWriter class functionality.
+ */
+public class XMLSceneWriter extends DataWriter
+{
+    /**
+     * Construct an XMLSceneWriter object that will be used to write
+     * the specified set of scenes to an XML file.
+     *
+     * @param scenes the scenes to be written.
+     */
+    public XMLSceneWriter (ArrayList scenes)
+    {
+        _scenes = scenes;
+        setIndentStep(2);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Write the scenes to the specified output file in XML format.
+     *
+     * @param fname the absolute pathname of the file to write to.
+     */
+    public void writeToFile (String fname) throws IOException
+    {
+        FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(fname);
+        setOutput(new OutputStreamWriter(fos));
+
+        try {
+            startDocument();
+            startElement("scenegroup");
+
+            int size = _scenes.size();
+            for (int ii = 0; ii < size; ii++) {
+                startElement("scene");
+
+                Scene scene = (Scene)_scenes.get(ii);
+
+                dataElement("name", scene.getName());
+                dataElement("sid", "" + scene.getId());
+                dataElement("version", "" + scene.VERSION);
+                dataElement("hotspots",
+                            StringUtil.toString(scene.getHotSpots()));
+                dataElement("exits", StringUtil.toString(scene.getExits()));
+
+                startElement("tiles");
+                for (int jj = 0; jj < Scene.NUM_LAYERS; jj++) {
+                    AttributesImpl attrs = new AttributesImpl();
+                    attrs.addAttribute("", "lnum", "", "CDATA", "" + jj);
+
+                    startElement("", "layer", "", attrs);
+                    for (int yy = 0; yy < Scene.TILE_HEIGHT; yy++) {
+                        attrs.clear();
+                        attrs.addAttribute("", "rownum", "", "CDATA", "" + yy);
+
+                        startElement("", "row", "", attrs);
+                        // TODO: write row data.
+                        endElement("row");
+                    }
+                    endElement("layer");
+                }
+                endElement("tiles");
+
+                endElement("scene");
+            }
+
+            endElement("scenegroup");
+            endDocument();
+
+        } catch (SAXException saxe) {
+            Log.warning("Exception writing scenes to file [fname=" +
+                        fname + ", saxe=" + saxe + "].");
+        }
+    }
+
+    /** The scenes to be written. */
+    protected ArrayList _scenes;
+}