[geeks] Three heads

[joshua d boyd]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 10:15:32PM -0700, Gregory Leblanc wrote:
> > I've been wondering, what constitutes a decent XML editor?
> 
> Well, that pretty much depends on whether you're a content author, or a
> programmer, or whatnot.  Here's what I can come up with offhand.  First,
> the editor HAS to know the DTD that you're using.  That is, it has to
> read the DTD file, parse it, and use that information in the editing
> window.  I think that editing XML like some web people edit HTML will be
> the best/most flexible solution.  If you've looked at things like
> Homesite from Allaire (sp?), it's got one window for the "raw" html
> markup, plus a "preview" window.  Since DocBook is semantic based,
> there's no reason to have a WYSIWYG type editing mode.  Instead, in the
> markup mode, you need to have buttons and context menus, and all that
> jazz, for inserting elements.  I think that the "preview" mode is
> important since most people haven't really learned to mark things based
> on content rather than presentation.

But, shouldn't a good XML editor be good for editing things that don't
have a graphical presentation?  Like what if I wanted to edit the xml
returned by SQL Server 2k?  Or is a good XML editor supposed to invent a
"look" for the xml if it doesn't know of a better "look"?

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd