Re: Comparative review of XML editors

On Sunday 24 April 2005 18:54, Steinar Bang wrote:
> >>>>> Sean Wheller <[email protected]>:
> >
> > On Wednesday 20 April 2005 20:41, David Malcolm wrote:
> >> Alas, Conglomerate doesn't get a mention
> >
> > Mainly because people feel conglomerate is hectic and lost its way.
>
> Er... in what way?
>
> In my view, conglomerate is the most promising document oriented XML
> editor around. =C2=A0

In my contributions to the documentation efforts of several distributions, =
in=20
particular those where GNOME is the default desktop environment, I have had=
=20
interaction with authors who seek a better alternative to editing XML=20
documents in source view editors such as VIM or emacs. My suggestion for=20
these users has been to move in the direction of WYSIOO structured editors=
=20
such as Morphon XML or XMLmind. Mainly because they are none technical peop=
le=20
and just want an easy way to write and contribute documents to their favori=
te=20
distro but find the barrier to entry high.

On many occasions I have recommended the the use of Conglomerate. The=20
responses, after trying it, have always come back in favor of XMLmind.=20
Statements I have received during IRC discussions with regard to Conglomera=
te=20
have included some trivial and some major issues:
* to slow in opening documents
* over complicates the editing process
* too many boxes and colors between text distracts me from writing
* conglomerate crashes for no apparent reason losing work, it did it twice =
and=20
I decided to give it a miss
* its the most stupid app, close and quit both terminate the application wh=
en=20
all I wanted to do was close the current document
I don't like the way I have to open dialogs in order to view or edit=20
attributes.
* it does not support basic stuff like entities and we use xinclude and=20
xpointer so I can't even read the whole document
* validation is bad on complex documents
* tried installing but failed, need to install to many things just to get a=
n=20
editor working

I can't remember all the comments I have had, but people see the editor as=
=20
crippled and poorly designed with little functionality or support for basic=
=20
things. In this view they see it as a poor choice when you have alternative=
s=20
like XMLmind to use.

Oh yes, one person remarked that the web site was unhelpful and that they s=
aw=20
I had written the help, but that it was mostly empty. They ask if I will be=
=20
finishing the document. Puts me in a sticky situation and I have to explain=
=20
the essence of what I am about to tell you next. Just not is so many words=
=20
and not as forthright.

=46rom my own experience I can say that I agree with their feelings. In=20
addition, back when I planned documenting the editor. I found that, with th=
e=20
exception of a few, that people were insensitive and unsupportive of new=20
people joining the project and voicing their ideas and problems. Often to t=
he=20
point where the views of others where over showed by the religious focus of=
=20
certain members. Often very valid user input and points where totally=20
disregarded.  Responses to questions often seemed more like an effort to=20
prove a persons technical ability and knowledge that trying to help a perso=
n=20
understand or solve an issue. Contribution to the project became an argumen=
t=20
and there was no more fun left.

In a recent effort to try and understand the problems a user who had instal=
led=20
Conglomerate and was speaking about. Since I had not touched the program in=
=20
some time, I tried installing the latest release on SuSE 9.2 and was met by=
=20
the following error
conglomerate.rpm install failed
rpm output:
/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.26168: line 2: gconftool-2: command not found
error: %post(conglomerate-0.9.0-1.1.fc2.rf) scriptlet failed, exit status 1=
27

I did not bother continuing. Firstly I was scared to ask for help for fear =
of=20
being abused on the list because of my ignorance and second because I don't=
=20
need gconftool for anything else. My main desktop is KDE, I have installed=
=20
numerous GNOME apps and have yet to be required to install gconftool.=20
everything GNOME installed on my box, "just works" afer installation.

Please, I realize that my comments and input here may offend and anger cert=
ain=20
people. I ask that you take my input and commnets as constructive input. I =
do=20
not mean to be derogitory or demeaning to any person, I am just trying to=20
give you a perspective of a person looking in to conglomerate as a project=
=20
from the outside.

Warm regards,
=2D-=20
Sean Wheller
Technical Author
http://www.inwords.co.za
Registered Linux User #375355

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