[plug] Whats a good xml editor for linux?

[Derek Fountain]

> Well, why would it be natural to build a *new* editor for one type of
> file when people are quite entrenched in their existing, pluripotent
> choices (e.g. vim, emacs...nedit?)?

Because XML opens the door to a totally different kind of editing. You're 
thinking of standard text editing to write XML files: type a '<', then type 
the tag name, type the name of an attribute, followed by an '=', etc. An XML 
editor shouldn't do that, except in it's bog standard, flat text file mode.

A good XML editor won't have you typing XML syntax. You give it a DTD to work 
from, and it offers a tree structure. Click here, select from the allowable 
elements dropdown/autocompletion/whatever widget, then select the attributes 
required and fill them in, etc. You're generating XML, not a text file which 
happens to have XML syntax. With a good XML editor you won't have to type 
angle brackets, quotes or any of the other syntax stuff. All that will be 
done for you; the editors knows XML syntax and the DTD tells it exactly what 
you're doing, so all it needs to do is offer a mechanism for you to enter and 
structure your data.

> For example, I'm happy
> with my existing support in vim. It would be true to say that there is
> probably something more efficient that I could be doing, but it hasn't
> occurred to me.

You are indeed missing out. The next time you press the '<' key in vim, you've 
just wasted a keystroke and the time it took to press it!

> www.altova.com and www.xmlspy.com seem to be uncontactable at the moment.

No problem with altova.com for me using iinet ADSL. It's worth a look if only 
to see the concept. They used to do a trial version and I suspect they still 
do. Personally I hate IDEs for programming, but for XML data entry, XSLT 
manipulation and the like, XMLSpy is a great tool.

-- 
> eatapple
core dump