diff --git a/src/perl/make_xmlwritecode.pl b/src/perl/make_xmlwritecode.pl
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/perl/make_xmlwritecode.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+
+#
+# $Id$
+#
+#  This file is part of the Virtual Leaf.
+#
+#  The Virtual Leaf is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+#  the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+#  (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#  The Virtual Leaf is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#  GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+#  along with the Virtual Leaf.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+#  Copyright 2010 Roeland Merks.
+
+# Store essential model source code in XML files, so the exact model
+# used for the geometry can be retrieved later on The crucial model
+# description is in the files "reactions.h" (or similar) and leaf.cpp
+# (or similar).
+
+# First we should retrieve the name of the main code (i.e. leaf.cpp or
+# so), and the version of reactions.h that we include there.
+
+# We can get this from the project file (possibly called "LeafGrowth.pro")
+
+# If more than one project file found, issue an error
+
+open prlist, "ls *.pro |";
+
+@projectfiles = ();
+while (<prlist>) {
+  chomp;
+  push @projectfiles, $_;
+}
+
+if ($#projectfiles > 0) {
+  print stderr "Oops, I found several project files: ";
+  for $p (@projectfiles) {
+    print stderr "$p ";
+  }
+  print stderr "\n";
+  print stderr "Please make sure you have only one, and try again\n";
+  exit(1);
+}
+
+if ($#projectfiles < 0) {
+  print stderr "No project files found. Please add a project file.\n";
+  exit(1);
+}
+
+$project = $projectfiles[0];
+
+print stderr "Using project file \"$project\"\n";
+
+# extract TARGET and REACTIONS from project file
+
+open pfile,"<$project";
+my @targets = ();
+while (<pfile>) {
+  if (/^[ \t]*TARGET/) {
+    my @line = split(/=/);
+    my $target = $line[1];
+    chomp $target;
+    $target =~ s/[ \t]//g;
+    push @targets, $target;
+  }
+  if (/^[ \t]*REACTIONS/) {
+    my @line = split(/=/);
+    my $reaction = $line[1];
+    chomp $reaction;
+    $reaction =~ s/[ \t]//g;
+    push @reactions, $reaction;
+  }
+}
+
+
+if ($#targets > 0) {
+  print stderr "Too many targets found: ";
+  for $t (@targets) {
+    print stderr "$t ";
+  }
+  print stderr "\n";
+  exit(1);
+}
+
+if ($#targets < 0) {
+  print stderr "No targets found in project $project\n";
+  exit(1);
+}
+
+$target = $targets[0];
+
+print "Target is $target\n";
+
+if ($#reactions > 0) {
+  print stderr "Too many reactions found: ";
+  for $t (@reactions) {
+    print stderr "$t ";
+  }
+  print stderr "\n";
+  exit(1);
+}
+
+if ($#reactions < 0) {
+  print stderr "No reactions found in project $project\n";
+  exit(1);
+}
+
+$reaction = $reactions[0];
+
+print "Reactions header is $reaction\n";
+
+$mainsource = $target.".cpp";
+
+# extract "reactions" source from mainsource
+# assuming that the header file name starts with "reactions_"
+
+#open sfile, "<$mainsource";
+#
+#while (<sfile>) {
+#  if (/^[ \t]*\#include/) {
+#    chomp;
+#    my @line = split(/\#include/);
+#    my $header = $line[1];
+#    $header =~ s/[\t ]//g;
+#    if ($header =~ /reactions/) {
+#      $header =~ s/[\"\<\>]//g;
+#      push @headers, $header;
+#    }
+#  }
+#}
+#
+#if ($#headers > 0) {
+#  print stderr "Oops, more than one reactions header found: ";
+#  for $h (@headers) {
+#    print stderr "$h ";
+#  }
+#  print stderr "\n";
+#  print stderr "Don't know what to do now... Please rename a header in $mainsource, so only one will start with \"reactions\"\n";
+#  exit(1);
+#}
+#
+#if ($#headers < 0) {
+#  print stderr "Oops, no reactions header found in $mainsource.\n";
+#  print stderr "Please make sure the name of your reactions header starts with \"reactions\"\n";
+#  exit(1);
+#}
+#
+#$reactions = $headers[0];
+
+
+
+# now generating xmlcode to write the contents of these files (hard coded in the executables)
+
+open xmlsrc, ">xmlwritecode.cpp";
+
+print xmlsrc <<END_MARKER;
+// Automatically produced by perl script \"make_xmlwritecode.pl\". DO NOT EDIT
+
+#include <libxml/parser.h>
+#include <libxml/tree.h>
+#include <libxml/xpath.h>
+#include <libxml/xmlreader.h>
+#include "xmlwrite.h"
+
+
+void XMLIO::XMLWriteLeafSourceCode(xmlNode *parent) {
+
+  // Embed the code in our xml file, so we can reconstruct the model we used
+  // to produce it... 
+
+END_MARKER
+
+sub construct_string_constant_from_file {
+
+  my $fname = shift;
+  my $str = "";
+  
+  open srcfile, "<$fname";
+  while (<srcfile>) {
+    chomp;      
+    s/\\/\\\\/g;
+    s/\"/\\\"/g;
+    s/\&/\&amp;/g;
+    $str.=$_."\\n";
+  }
+  $str .= "\";\n";
+  return $str;
+}
+
+print xmlsrc "xmlChar *sourcecode = (xmlChar *)\"".construct_string_constant_from_file( "$mainsource" );
+   print xmlsrc <<END_MARKER2;
+    xmlNodePtr xmlcode = xmlNewChild(parent, NULL, BAD_CAST \"code\", sourcecode);
+
+     {
+        xmlNewProp(xmlcode, BAD_CAST "name", BAD_CAST \"$mainsource\");
+     }
+  
+}
+
+void XMLIO::XMLWriteReactionsCode(xmlNode *parent) {
+
+END_MARKER2
+
+print xmlsrc "xmlChar *sourcecode = (xmlChar *)\"".construct_string_constant_from_file( "$reaction" );
+   print xmlsrc <<END_MARKER3;
+    xmlNodePtr xmlcode = xmlNewChild(parent, NULL, BAD_CAST \"code\", sourcecode);
+
+     {
+        xmlNewProp(xmlcode, BAD_CAST "name", BAD_CAST \"$reaction\");
+     }
+  
+}
+
+END_MARKER3
+