sheepeatingtaz

I’ve used a lot of programs in the past for ‘coding’. I’ve gone with notepad (back when I first started), through various things up to (for example) complex tools like Eclipse. I also gone back ‘down’ the scale, and used gedit/kate/notepad++ (depending on what platform I am using). In the end, I often get fed up of trying to be ‘helped’ by the complex tools, and want nothing more than syntax highlighting and pretty printing.

In my current job, I am doing a lot of work with XML, with various different XML schemas for various different companies. I have the need for a tool to view, edit and validate XML documents. There are various things around the internet that do this. Some are Open Source, some are proprietary, some are in between. Some cost money, some don’t. Others in my office use Oxygen/ so I had been using this (and getting frustrated with it both in standalone and eclipse plugin form for just not helping me when it thought it was!). Then, by chance on the Ubuntu-uk mailing list someone suggested XML Copy Editor.

I Love It. Cross platform (with Ubuntu .deb for ease). Simple. Does the job. Load XML file. Press F11 to pretty print (I’m slow in the head sometimes, and need help understanding the structures ). Syntax? Already Highlighted. Associate Schema from the XML Menu. F5 to validate. Job Done. Searches, highlights the line you are on, but nothing more obtrusive (at least as far as I can tell!).

Plus, it is open source. I can go onto sourceforge, and help out. I wish I were able to do more, but I may start taking Tony Whitmore as an example and donate some money once a year to open source projects that I use, value, yet cannot contribute much else to. XML Copy Editor is top of my list.