Open Lexicon Interchange Format (OLIF) is an XML terminology format that SDL Multiterm 2009 can import. (In other news, unlike the first time I bought them, TRADOS 2007 and Multiterm 2009 are now interoperable. Must have been an upgrade between then and when I bought this laptop. Bodes well for my everyday work!)
So ... building on OLIF and my new SQP tool, maybe it's time to consider writing that terminology database thing with a nice Perly wrapper.
By the way, OLIF was initially supported by SAP (and it's an SAP-related job I'm working on right now!) and the OLIF Consortium is like a who's-who of the big players in the translation industry. So it's probably worth grokking.
