Need an XML editor comparable to Visual Studio 2005

[Robert Dailey]

Hi,

I've gone through tons of XML editors:

- XML Spy
- Oxygen
- UltraEdit
- PSPad
- Many others I can't think of...

They have all failed to impress me. So far, Visual Studio 2005 is the
best XML editor. It has the perfect XML code completion (In other
words, it completes closing angle brackets in a unique way, etc). Most
of the larger editors like XML Spy and Oxygen are really slow. The
other ones are fancy "Notepad" programs that really don't offer any
code completion or other nice features.

I don't really care about XML validation using DTD's or schemas, nor
do I care about special tree views for XML or anything else advanced.
I just care about ease of typing XML code. I want the same nice XML
completion features that Visual Studio 2005 offers.

With the SP1 patch released for Visual Studio 2005, the XML completion
broke terribly. Typing <ElementNameand pressing ENTER puts the </
ElementNameon the wrong tab. It's just totally messed up.

Here's what I want in an editor:
- Lightweight. Nothing overly bloated, something that has at the very
most (if possible) the features I want and nothing more. Since I
probably can't have that, something responsive would be ideal. Nothing
coded in JAVA please; JAVA is slow as dirt.
- Configurable syntax highlighting. I want to be able to specify
colors for attribute values, names, operators, elements, text, etc.
- Configurable code completion. Type XML for a bit using Visual Studio
2005 (before SP1) and you'll see what I mean. Code completion is my
biggest concern.
- Must target Windows XP. I want something easy to install.

If anyone can suggest something like this, please do so. I would
greatly appreciate it.

[Peter Flynn]

Robert Dailey wrote:

Hi,

I've gone through tons of XML editors:

- XML Spy
- Oxygen
- UltraEdit
- PSPad
- Many others I can't think of...

They have all failed to impress me. So far, Visual Studio 2005 is the
best XML editor. It has the perfect XML code completion (In other
words, it completes closing angle brackets in a unique way, etc). Most
of the larger editors like XML Spy and Oxygen are really slow. The
other ones are fancy "Notepad" programs that really don't offer any
code completion or other nice features.

I don't really care about XML validation using DTD's or schemas, nor
do I care about special tree views for XML or anything else advanced.
I just care about ease of typing XML code. I want the same nice XML
completion features that Visual Studio 2005 offers.

Any decent XML editor will insert the whole element for you anyway.
Relying on completion for partial end-tags is a sucky and insecure way
to edit.

Try Emacs with psgml-mode and xxml-mode.

///Peter

[JussiJ]

On Jul 10, 5:21 am, Robert Dailey <[e-mail]:

Here's what I want in an editor:

You could try the Zeus editor:

http://www.zeusedit.com

- Lightweight. Nothing overly bloated

Being highly configurable Zeus could be called bloated, but
it still run very fast.

Startup time is less than a second and the file load times
are short.

- Configurable syntax highlighting.

It has configurable syntax highlighting.

Not sure how well it does XML coloring, but if you find a
problem you can always raise a bug report.

- Configurable code completion. Type XML for a bit
using Visual Studio 2005 (before SP1) and you'll see
what I mean. Code completion is my biggest concern.

Zeus has a fully configurable template based code
completion system.

What this measn for example is that in c/c++ file if
you type this:

foi<space>

Zeus will give you this:

for (int i = 0; i < ; ++i)
{
}

This may or may not be what you are after?

Alternatively Zeus is fully scriptable so if should also
be possible to write a script to implement some form
of script based code completion.

- Must target Windows XP. I want something easy to install.

Windows based, with install/uninstall.

Jussi Jumppanen
Author: Zeus for Windows IDE

[Slonik]

With the SP1 patch released forVisualStudio2005, theXMLcompletion

broke terribly. Typing <ElementNameand pressing ENTER puts the </
ElementNameon the wrong tab. It's just totally messed up.

If your "only" problem is screwed XML editor in VS2005 SP1 then I've
found a cure for this pain. After geting almost mad I've got in idea
and it seems it works. Just use XML editor from non patched
installation. Find somewhere installation of VS2005 without SP1 and
just copy this file to your installation:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\Xml
\Microsoft.XmlEditor.dll"
I did it and problems with silly indentation are solved.

Hope it helps.
Pavel