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>As to having acces to the XML in addition to our visual editor that was
just granted a patent for how we make document structure available via our
visual structure bars, Flare also has a great
>raw XML editor with line wrapping, line numbering, and element color
coding.
I didn't know this. Thanks for clarifying, Mike. If I had a choice, I'd
still be using Flare.
I find XMetaL's mousage-based functionality extremely irritating. I don't
know if other tools require authors to constantly pick up the mouse to move
to other tags, but because XMetaL supports a Trisoft authoring bridge that
funnels my content to my company's CCMS, even moving to another XML editor
would be impossible. XMetaL is now a tech pubs requirement at my company.
I really miss being able to just use VI to edit my topics, as I did with
Flare. One of these days I hope to be able to get back to it.
Bee
There is a lot of myth/folklore that has been spread around about the XML
> underpinnings in Flare. I just don't think that a lot of people understand
> what it is that we are doing, or why.
>
> The MadCap Flare source files are absolutely well-formed and valid XML, but
> they are validated against two XML SCHEMA not one. In this hybrid approach
> all visible content (headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, etc.) validate
> against the W3C SCHEMA for XHTML. Because of this most people jump to the
> incorrect conclusion that Flare is simply an XHTML editor. This is grossly
> incorrect as if they looked a little more closely they would realize that
> the very second line of the XML document calls out a secondary MadCap SCHEMA
> via an XML namespace declaration. Why the second SCHEMA? XHTML doesn't have
> any concept of conditional markers, variables, reusable content snippets,
> etc. so we augment the XHTML SCHEMA with the MadCap SCHEMA to add that
> functionality.
>
> Many have asked why we did it this way instead of simply writing our own
> proprietary SCHEMA for everything. It would have been much easier for us to
> do just that, but then we would be locking up customers content in a
> proprietary fashion like a lot of other tools out there. Our goal was to
> provide maximum single-source capabilities, but in a method that never locks
> up the customer content in a proprietary fashion. If people want to kick our
> products to the curb next year, then any tool that can read XHTML can reuse
> the content they worked so hard to develop.
>
> As to having acces to the XML in addition to our visual editor that was
> just granted a patent for how we make document structure available via our
> visual structure bars, Flare also has a great raw XML editor with line
> wrapping, line numbering, and element color coding.
>
> I hope that this helps,
> Mike Hamilton
> MadCap Software
>
> From: techwr-l-bounces+mhamilton=madcapsoftware -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com[techwr-l-bounces+mhamilton=
> madcapsoftware -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Porrello, Leonard [
> lporrello -at- illumina -dot- com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 2:57 PM
> To: 'beelia -at- pacbell -dot- net'
> Cc: TECHWR-L Writing; Chris Gooch
> Subject: RE: DITA useful for translation?
> Thanks, Bee, for the clarification. I know MadCap talks about Flare being
> "XML-based," but I haven't been able to understand what that really means,
> and this leads me to think that it is just marketing doublespeak. In
> contrast, the XML H&M creates from WYSIWYG is well-formed, and you can also
> edit the XML directly. Do you know, is there any way to get to Flare's
> alleged XML? Is it well-formed (a somewhat redundant question since if it
> isn't well-formed, it isn't XML)?
>
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