Re: [xml-dev] Is "Hand Authoring" XML still a critical use case ?

[Stephen Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>]

>
> Is Hand Authored XML really an important issue nowadays ?
>
> I argue that lack of good Apps is the problem really.
>

As a web developer I tend to hand write XHTML all the time of
course. My colleagues tend to use Notepad but as a 'coder' I tend
to use an IDE but either way it is mostly hand-coding rather than using
the tools' graphical interfaces (they are more for simple web pages).

The other use I tend to make of XML as a web developer is to
edit XML Scheme files for .NET datasets. Again the IDE has graphical
interface functionality which helps a lot (since the datasets are more
than just the XML Schema) but I always feel I MUST be able to do
the occassional task by hand-editing the text (and for this either the
IDE's text editor or just Notepad or something like Notepad++ are used)

Most developer tools concerning XML (like SOAP editors, code IDEs, etc
and the handy XML editors) act in two modes - graphical (where a lot
of the angle-bracket work is done for you) and plain text editor (usually
but not always with intellisense - depending on which XML language
you use).

That's my experience which seems to be typical of the average web
developer. Others extend all this by using things like XAML and the
java equivalents but HTML5 might put an end to that and have us all
using text editors all the more.
----
Stephen D Green



On 9 December 2010 17:23, David Lee <dlee@calldei.com> wrote:
> A lot of talk recently about making XML simpler (I agree on many!) but along
> with that is talk about the effects (good and bad) on Hand Authored XML.
>
>
>
> Is Hand Authored XML really an important issue nowadays ?
>
> I argue that lack of good Apps is the problem really.
>
>
>
> Take an example.   Does ANYONE  "Hand Author" Word or PDF documents ?   I
> think not.
>
> Yet does anyone complain about how hard it is to author Word or PDF
> Documents ?  All I hear from authors is how they DON’T want to author XML,
>
> they want Word.   The actual file format is irrelevant to most document
> authors (except us geeks).
>
>
>
> The user experience in the application is what authors see.
>
>
>
> So I ask, "Is Hand Authoring XML an important design criteria?" …
>
> I suggestion "No", but rather "Availability of good Authoring Tools" is
> what's critical.
>
>
>
> <duck/>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
>
> David A. Lee
>
> dlee@calldei.com
>
> http://www.xmlsh.org
>
>