editing XML (was: Re: [geeks] Three heads)

[Gregory Leblanc]

On 08 Aug 2001 09:21:10 -0400, joshua d boyd wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 10:15:32PM -0700, Gregory Leblanc wrote:
> > > I've been wondering, what constitutes a decent XML editor?
> > 
> > Well, that pretty much depends on whether you're a content author, or a
> > programmer, or whatnot.  Here's what I can come up with offhand.  First,
> > the editor HAS to know the DTD that you're using.  That is, it has to
> > read the DTD file, parse it, and use that information in the editing
> > window.  I think that editing XML like some web people edit HTML will be
> > the best/most flexible solution.  If you've looked at things like
> > Homesite from Allaire (sp?), it's got one window for the "raw" html
> > markup, plus a "preview" window.  Since DocBook is semantic based,
> > there's no reason to have a WYSIWYG type editing mode.  Instead, in the
> > markup mode, you need to have buttons and context menus, and all that
> > jazz, for inserting elements.  I think that the "preview" mode is
> > important since most people haven't really learned to mark things based
> > on content rather than presentation.
> 
> But, shouldn't a good XML editor be good for editing things that don't
> have a graphical presentation?  Like what if I wanted to edit the xml
> returned by SQL Server 2k?  Or is a good XML editor supposed to invent a
> "look" for the xml if it doesn't know of a better "look"?

Yep, but I don't see many people editing XML, other than for
documentation, by hand.  Certainly part of the "preview" would have to
be a stylesheet, XSL/XSLT makese the most sense.
Psgml mode for emacs provides most of the sorts of things that
programmers require when writing XML by hand, although a nicer GUI might
be nice. 
	Greg