Structured Framemaker, FDK and XML Blog

STC-SINGLE-SOURCING-L Digest for Monday, November 12, 2007.

1. Recommendations for XML editors for authors
2. Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
3. Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
4. Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
5. Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors

———————————————————————-

Subject: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
From: cathy.stoneman@medtronic.com
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:42:36 -0700
X-Message-Number: 1

My Tech Comm department is currently using PTC Arbortext Editor (Epic) on
Windows clients for our XML authoring. We have a custom-built CMS that
runs under Sun’s UNIX-based Solaris OS. Integrating the editor with the
CMS requires a lot of complicated client-server communication and imposes
limitations on CMS access from within the editor.

We are investigating moving the XML editor to the server so that we can
more closely couple the editing functions to the CMS and at the same time
eliminate the need to install lots of software on each Windows client.

Does anyone have a suggestion for an XML editor that meets the following
requirements:

1. Is a full-featured editor for technical writers (not just an XML-aware
text editor for web developers or a web development tool)

2. Runs on Linux or Solaris

3. Works with a custom DTD (not just DITA or DocBook)

4. Has a robust API through which we can build connectivity to our CMS
(checkout, checkin, etc.)

We may end up back where we started with Arbortext, but we would like to
evaluate our alternatives.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Cathy Stoneman

———————————————————————-

Subject: Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
From: “Jay Bryant”
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:02:55 -0600
X-Message-Number: 3

> Does anyone have a suggestion for an XML editor that meets the following
> requirements:
>
> 1. Is a full-featured editor for technical writers (not just an XML-aware
> text editor for web developers or a web development tool)
>
> 2. Runs on Linux or Solaris
>
> 3. Works with a custom DTD (not just DITA or DocBook)
>
> 4. Has a robust API through which we can build connectivity to our CMS
> (checkout, checkin, etc.)

Hi, Cathy,

Look at XML Mind (http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/). The Professional
version ($250 a seat) does everything on your list. I implement custom
document production solutions, and I have a number of clients using XML
Mind. That includes a number of technical writers, who all like it.

If you need further information, let me know.

Jay Bryant
Bryant Communication Services
http://www.bryantcs.com

———————————————————————-

Subject: Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
From: David Cramer
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:30:00 -0600
X-Message-Number: 4

In addition to XMLMind which others have already mentioned, look at
Oxygen, http://www.oxygenxml.com

Oxygen has recently added css-based editing view and I understand
they’re working on a “author” version that doesn’t have all the xslt
debugging stuff.

David

cathy.stoneman@medtronic.com wrote:
> Does anyone have a suggestion for an XML editor that meets the following requirements:
>
> 1. Is a full-featured editor for technical writers (not just an XML-aware text editor for web developers or a web development tool)
>
> 2. Runs on Linux or Solaris
>
> 3. Works with a custom DTD (not just DITA or DocBook)
>
> 4. Has a robust API through which we can build connectivity to our CMS (checkout, checkin, etc.)
>

———————————————————————-

Subject: Re: Recommendations for XML editors for authors
From: Khaled Aly
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:06:18 +0200
X-Message-Number: 5

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
————–020202080208020308050808
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I’ve used oXygen 8.x for just several months. A new version 9 has just
been released that has the Author mode with optional markup view. It
directly supports DocBook 4.5 and 5.0, DITA 1.1, and TEI. For custom
XML, you get RELAX NG, Schematron, and NVDL in addition to DTD and XSD.
You can integrate external processors you might have in addition to FOP or
other XSLT processors into the UI menus. Runs on Linux, not expensive, and support is very
good. I don’t know of an API… Of course I haven’t used all features,
but I really recommend a try.

Cheers
Khaled

T