Thanks Ted for letting us hear at least a little bit of the new XML editor. Of course, the big thing here is that it MIGHT be available as a standalone download so we don’t have to wait until Whidbey (CORRECTION from Previous posts: I thought it read standalone editor – just my wishful thinking)
I know everyone thinks that XML is the NBH (Next Big Hype) and I will admit to being in that group. I love XML as a way for dealing with so many different data streams and more. But, realistically, I think it’s important for an editor to exist that makes it easy to:
a) build useful XSL stylesheets quickly
b) understand the structure of the file
c) modify and update the DTD schema
I think that a lot of developers who have been working with XML tools in a theoretical or “tool” based environment miss the point that many developers, who are focused around getting products out, don’t have the same time to learn how all of these new functions work, even though they can understand the benefits. They want the tools that allow them to take advantage of XML without having to understand the syntax of XPATH, XSL and other areas. I really hope this is where the new XML editor comes into play. I may be hoping for too much — but I hope not. Otherwise we (as the entire developer community) will find ourselves in a similar situation as when OOP started becoming more popular and a great many developers who didn’t get it immediately became frustrated and as a result, churned out a lot of pretty ugly stuff.
I’ve seen lots of TERRIBLE XML implementations and pure misunderstandings of what XML looks like. Tools like XML/Spy have great goals but I think the end result misses the boat. I hope the MS XML Editor helps fill the void…