Re: Open Source XML Editor

[Marcus Carr <mrc@allette.com.au>]

Danny Ayers wrote:

> Hmm - "...they probably wouldn't be writing about the topic..." seems to
> imply that everyone that wants to write XML documents wants to write about
> XML! I'm sure this isn't what you meant.

No, I meant the topic that they are being paid to write about. That may be XML,
but it would more likely be one of the millions of other topics that have been
documented...:-)

> There is an important (chestnut)
> point here though - the people writing the documents don't necessarily want
> to know about the mechanics. Anyone can build a passable web site using
> something like Dreamweaver without knowing any HTML. i.e. someone has to
> specify the structure of the XML (write DTD/Schema), and some poor sod has
> to do the inputting - but they don't necessarily have to be the same person.

Consider the creation of a set of manuals for a product. One of the first things
that happens is that the documentation team gets together and they decide on the
heading levels, the numbering schemes, the order of warnings in relation to the
action that they warn about, use of lists and depth of nesting, etc. In short,
they design the structure of the document set. All XML adds is a mechanism for
checking some (but not all) of these things. XML doesn't create structure, it
only formalises it. Authors already know about document structures - in some
cases they know a damn sight more than the XML consultants who blithely
recommend they use DocBook.

> What would be nice would be a WYSIWYG XML doc editor that had it's toolbar
> buttons, form areas etc. defined by the DTD, so it would look like a
> (application-specific) word processor.  I don't know - can any editor do
> this yet?

Several have been mentioned - you may want to look at FrameMaker+SGML as well.


--
Regards,

Marcus Carr                      email:  mrc@allette.com.au
___________________________________________________________________
Allette Systems (Australia)      www:    http://www.allette.com.au
___________________________________________________________________
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
       - Einstein