XML Editors

Overview

One of the identified requirements for the current project is an XML/webforms editor. I have evaluated the top offerings for the Windows operating system, which is our target audience. As a basis for comparison and with the idea in mind that down the road there may be a need to offer a non-windows version I also looked at the several unix offerings.

Functional requirements

A robust environment for editing existing XML and HTML documents, target platform is Windows 95/98. Must be user friendly, the target audience is likely a content manager or pr person rather than a serious coder.

Breakdown of editors

Several open source editors targeted at the linux platform were included for comparison. Note that any editors that say Unix should work on all major flavors (HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, *BSD, GNU/Linux, Mac OS-X).

Athens (Win)
This editor is essentially Notepad with some bells and whistles and a toolbar. The UI is low quality, and does not present the sort of professional look and feel that is needed for an OEM'd application. While this might be useful for someone who is very familiar with XML it is of little use to the target audience.

Aweb Developer (Win)
This application aims to be a full featured web development environment and falls short of the mark by several yards. The interface is not completely horrible but is also not acceptable for our purposes. The sole instance of XML support is a set of Miva tags. Error messages seem to be a poorly understood concept here, and it would be fairly intimidating for a non-technical user.

Breeze Factor (Win/Unix)
A very powerful and full featured XML IDE, though the UI isn't quite friendly enough for non-technical users. Database interaction is solid and easy to use. $495/seat, volume pricing is available.

Dreamweaver (Win/Mac)
The interface for Dreamweaver will seem a little unfamiliar to many Windows users at first (toolbars and workspaces floating above the desktop in a very Mac/X-like manner rather than within their own contained frame) but other than that it is a very robust and friendly application. Once the end users are comfortable with the UI, they would have little trouble accomplishing their tasks quickly and easily. The learning curve for this app is about average for a commercial Windows application (e.g. once the concepts of the application are understood, daily use is fairly simple). The lone downside to Dreamweaver is it's tendency to protect the user from too much information about what they are doing. It is bundled with Allaire's Homesite, which the more technical people will be inclined to use instead.

EditML (Win)
Slightly more full-featured than Athens, this features perhaps the most graceless error handling I've seen outside of outright crashing the application. Novices to XML will be frightened, more advanced users will be frustrated by the lack of any useful features.

FrameMaker (Win/Unix/Mac)
Overkill. Framemaker is a fantastic, full featured, reasonably user friendly application that is so far much more ...

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