[plug] Whats a good xml editor for linux?

[James Devenish]

In message <200312191156.23235.derekfountain at yahoo.co.uk>
on Fri, Dec 19, 2003 at 11:56:23AM +0800, Derek Fountain wrote:
> Actually, it seems you do understand the reasoning! Think of OpenOffice as an 
> XML editor - that's exactly what it is.

I take your point in the spirit with which I think you intended it, but
I would certainly not consider OpenOffice an answer to "is there a good
XML editor?". (I assume that it doesn't have XMLSpy integrated :)

> Since XML is basically a tree structure, you present a root node. When
> the user clicks on it they can enter the type of node it is...and
> guide them to the list...The editor allows them to build a tree
> from their data. And not an angle bracket in sight!

I wonder whether this is starting to touch upon one of the reasons that
might be limited OSS motivation for an editor that occupies the space
between vim and OpenOffice. If the above activities can be handled in
vim and emacs (which they can), it is unlikely that someone with the
expertise to write an editor would want to write one purely to provide
a seemingly "marginal" feature such as avoidance of angle brackets.

> In practise, the XMLSpy user like you or I will frequently switch
> between tree mode and text mode

This interests me. I have both a GUI web browser and a text-mode web
browser on my screen side-by-side. You might think that I'd stick with
the GUI browser, but I don't. I swap into the text-mode browser now and
then. What GUI browsers do I use? Mainly Mozilla and Safari. I would not
be caught dead with access to w3m, because I don't always have X11/Aqua
with me, and they don't follow me between buildings like a shell session
can. Also, I like to edit forms using vim.

> Without a DTD the tree building still works, it's just that the editor can't 
> offer guidance on what is and is not allowed.

I wonder whether the lack of widespread Schema and Forms popularity
might have inhibited the motivation for an OSS "XML editor". (Again,
why bother if it's for marginal benefit?) One of the things about free
software development is that you're often developing "for someone else's
benefit". That's entirely true for paid software development, too, but
but there may be other motivations for you (workplace environment,
salary, differences in the nature of your responsibilities, etc.).