Open source XML editors examined

Let’s face it. Just because a piece of software is Open Source does not mean that it is the best tool for the job. In an effort to compare Open Source applications, this article at NewsForge shows us a variety of great applications that you might want to investigate for yourselves. I can speak volumes about Komander. It is amazing what that software can do successfully.

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) provides a flexible and efficient way to store, transmit, and express data. Many applications have adopted it as their sole data format, and the availability of comprehensive XML development libraries makes it easy to add support for XML to new and existing applications. The open source community has produced an impressive lineup of XML editing utilities. In this article we’ll take a look at some of the most useful.

Despite the numerous benefits of XML, users and developers that work with it realize that XML’s versatility is a mixed blessing. How does one design an effective editor for a data format that can be used to express virtually any kind of structured content? A visual editing idiom that is appropriate for developing a user interface with XUL content may not be appropriate for writing an essay with DocBook content. In many cases it becomes necessary to construct a specialized editing environment that provides a unique interface and produces valid XML code, such as Glade or OpenOffice.org.

If one were to build a generic XML editor that could support a multitude of vastly disparate content types, how would it work? The structure of a given XML content type is usually specified in a Document Type Definition (DTD) or a Schema. An application can use this data to introduce specializations and interface refinements. Many XML editors employ document meta-data to provide context-sensitive assistance and automation mechanisms.