help-gnu-emacs
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: psgml - support for XML namespaces and schemas?


From: Galen Boyer
Subject: Re: psgml - support for XML namespaces and schemas?
Date: 9 Nov 2002 19:41:09 -0600
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.1

On Fri, 08 Nov 2002, darren@dzr-web.com wrote:
> On Fri, 08 Nov 2002 17:10:36 +0000, Galen Boyer wrote:
> 
>>> But what I am really after is the features of PSGML but more XML
>>> rather than SGML centric. The fact that PSGML parses the DTD and
>>> then provides context-sensitive menus for inserting elements and
>>> attributes is what makes it so useful for me.
>> 
>> I'd recommend that you download the XAE and try it out.  It does this
>> very nicely.
> 
> I thought XAE just was PSGML with a load of java and docbook stuff
> included.  Is that wrong? 

It uses PSGML mode for the structured editing but then it has built in
parsing of the dtd so that you get context sensitive tag creation
through menus.  I find this quite helpful.

It supports the docbook right out of the box, but any other available
dtd that you reference can be the dtd for that document and that dtd
will get parsed and context sensitive menus created for that document.
I like it mostly cause it has the built-in xslt processor and a menu
item,

   XAE --> View Document --> In Html Browser

With this click, the file I'm working in gets transformed and my browser
gets instantiated with the transformed document.  Very helpful.

> XAE's homepage doesn't contain much information.

Yeah, XAE is written by Paul Kunnican, the author of the JDEE.  That is
his baby and where the bulk of his time is spent.

> The thing is that I've already got PSGML set up nicely, and using
> onsgmls/openjade for validating suits me so far. 

I'm not sure how it would actually affect your current environment.  You
probably would need to install the XAE and then get your stuff working
again, this time with the XAE in use.  There was an earlier version when
the XAE frustrated me because the lack of a DTD seemed to make it
unusable, but the mode for the DTDless XML file I was in was still the
XAE.  It seems to be corrected now (it doesn't seem so pissed off if
there isn't a DTD anymore), but I am really only using it for docbook
authoring of XML, so I can't say for sure.

> I once tried XAE but it turned out my java environment wasn't
> configured right, and then I got totally lost trying to figure that
> out and eventually gave up. 

Not sure how to soften those frustrations.  If your java environment
isn't correct, the XAE isn't going to correct it.  But, you could ask
the XAE list on how to correct it.  You might get an answer.

> I could certainly be persuaded to give it another go if I understood
> what was "value added" about it (and also if it didn't mean having to
> scrap all the stuff I've done so far on configuring psmgl to work how
> I like it) ...
>
>> I don't know how it deals with this, but I'm sure Paul would be
>> interested in making it work.
> 
> Well schemas and namespace are certainly a core part of XML's
> direction, and I don't see how any full-featured XML editing
> environment can not support them, but at the same time to the best of
> my understanding XAE just uses PSGML, and Lennart and others have
> implied that adding support for them would involve a very major
> re-write. 

I think the context sensitive menu creation by parsing the referenced
DTD is what you mean by supporting?

> I really wish I wasn't such a hopeless Lisp programmer, because I
> would otherwise enjoy trying to do it myself.

The last thing that makes the XAE attractive to me, is that Paul's JDE
is a really nice package.  I see the XAE having even a much fuller
environment as Paul turns his concentrations to it.  It is extremely
useful already.  I'd like to be a user and help him by offering my
perspective as a user.  So, I guess I'm saying that I trust that the
package will remain in active development for quite some time, and
seeing the power of the JDE makes me wonder what the XAE will look like
in the future.

-- 
Galen deForest Boyer
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.


reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]