[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] [ANN] CoherentWeb Release 4.0 - A new XSLT Editor
I'm both pleased and relieved to announce that Version 4.0 of CoherentWeb, is now available from Qutoric, at: http://coherentweb.com/ About CoherentWeb CoherentWeb is an XSLT-based batch-processing desktop-tool for Windows. This release marks a fundamental addition to CoherentWeb's, capabilties, it's now also an XML/XSLT Editor. CoherentWeb's XML Editor signals a rethink of many established principles in XML Editor design. One highlight is how closely the editor is integrated with the batch-processing and validation system, with instant input/output switching. However, I've picked out another innovation to describe here in a bit more detail: Virtual Formatting for the XML Editor This XML text rendering concept is where the left-margin for each line of XML adjusts to the XML context. The resulting indentation helps improve the readability of XML, but critically, without any padding characters. Within the Editor ( See also: screencast [1] ) An XML text editor using Virtual Formatting keeps XML formatting correct at all times: as you type, use clipboard features, or initiate XML operations like adding container elements. Auto-completion helps reduce unwanted re-formatting whilst editing. If XML is not well-balanced, the formatting will reflect where the issue lies. Different indentation schemes can be used (or none at all) to suit the requirement. The position of new line characters determines all indentation, attribute names, values and namespace declarations are all aligned. Indentation of lines is also preserved when they are word-wrapped. Leading whitespace characters are still used for indentation outside the XML context, e.g. to lend text formatting to attribute values, preformatted text nodes and XML comments. Working with other tools A complex issue with Virtual Formatting is trimming pre-existing padding characters in an XML source so as not to interfere with indentation; the difficulty encountered in doing this safely (when there's no schema), helps underline why alternatives to padding characters at least require consideration. The approach taken with CoherentWeb, is to err on the side of caution when automatically trimming XML, and then provide the user with more agressive trimming options. The editor does not insert padding characters when XML is saved, relying on XML-aware tools possessing the capability to add these when required; using options aligned with a specific users needs. Benefits It would be tempting to list the problems that redundant whitespace brings to the XML development lifecycle, and why Virtual Formatting helps alleviate these. The truth, however, is that any benefits will be down to individual use cases, and these need to be considered alongside potential issues associated with the change. The only way therefore to realistically assess whether this will benefit you is to try it out (so, I hope you will). Finally I hope that those not yet ready for a Virtual Formatting editor can still benefit from Coherentweb in its primary role: a mult-threaded XSLT batch-processing system, with flexible ZIP-processing for EPUB, OOXML, ODF etc. through a fully integrated EXPath ZIP[2] implementation. Many thanks Phil Fearon (Director) Qutoric Limited http://qutoric.com --- [1] http://youtu.be/jSeiYPWVOfA [2] http://expath.org
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