How can I convert a Microsoft Access database file (MDB) to xml
without using the windows platform or Microsoft software, but rather
using the Mac OS X/Darwin platform?

A good starting point is the MDB Tools project as SourceForge:

http://mdbtools.sourceforge.net/

This is an open source effort to document the MDB file format, and
apparently their tools allow for extracting schema and data.  If you
are a Darwin command line aficionado, this may be worth your looking
into.

regards, mathtalk-ga

I am aware of those tools and possibly might try to recompile them as
a cocoa application. I am working on it.

Sounds like a plan.  You may be able to get some moral support and
advice from the guy who's working on this for OpenOffice.org:

http://dba.openoffice.org/drivers/mdb/index.html

See the contact info at the bottom of that page.

regards, mathtalk-ga

I thank you for the link. If I make any headway, I will post here.