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Re: XML-appropriate editing data structures

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: XML-appropriate editing data structures
• From: "Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@c...>
• Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 13:58:42 -0400
• In-reply-to: <p06010215bc9b37ad2f56@[192.168.254.88]>
• References: <000601c41cf4$0e7fa1e0$6800a8c0@bagpeddlerjlake> <407491E5.4080101@w...> <4074B416.1030807@o...> <p0601020bbc9ac4a5288f@[192.168.254.88]> <4075451B.9050802@c...> <p06010215bc9b37ad2f56@[192.168.254.88]>
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Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:

> 
> Yes, but I don't think most XML-specific tools go far enough. I'm a man 
> of extremes. I either want to edit my XML by hand in a text editor (with 
> maybe a little help from syntax coloring and tag completion, though I 
> won't miss it if it isn't there; and I certainly wouldn't accept poor 
> performance in order to have these features.) or I want an application 
> specific editor such as Word or Adobe Illustrator that completely 
> shields me from the native XML. I encounter little need for anything in 
> between these two positions.

I usually use a colorized text editor, generally Edit+ or Armed Bear, or 
sometimes the Topologi editor.  One thing I really want that I don't 
often see is bookmarks so that I can move back to specific places. 
Edit+ has them, and so does Armed Bear, but in AB they are invisible, 
which is a nuisance.

Last year, I wrote my paper for Extreme - which requires you to use 
their DTD - using XML Mind, which is approximately WYSIWYG by means of a 
CSS style sheet.  I also did my slides for the talk using a different 
DTD and style sheet. That was a reasonable experience, but it wouldn't 
be adequate for a really large work, I don't think, because it is a bit 
hard to move around and find the right places.

I have been using the Word "document map" display often in recent 
months.  This view is a tree view, but it is based on heading levels 
that you can declare, so that if you have a style called ".level-1", you 
can make that a level 1 heading and it displays appropriately in the 
document map.  You can also suppress the display of all levels below a 
threshold, which is handy.

I'd like to see something comparable in an XML editor that was designed 
for editing large text-style documents.  You don't usually want to see 
all the elements in a tree view, but you want to see some structure to 
make it easier to move around a large work.

And yes, speed of loading and response is important to me.

Cheers,

Tom P

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: XML-appropriate editing data structures
    • From: "Bryce K. Nielsen" <bryce@s...>

• References:
  • Converting xml to csv with xslt
    • From: "Jerry Lake" <jerry@b...>
  • Re: Converting xml to csv with xslt
    • From: Mike Fitzgerald <mikefz@w...>
  • XML-appropriate editing data structures
    • From: Bob Foster <bob@o...>
  • Re: XML-appropriate editing data structures
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
  • Re: XML-appropriate editing data structures
    • From: Mark Schmeets <mark@c...>
  • Re: XML-appropriate editing data structures
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>

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