Goals

The goals of this page are...

• to be a comprehensive list of DocBook-aware editor programs

• to distinguish which programs are included in Ubuntu
• to present this information in a consistent format

• please try to stick to the format thank you

The questions that I am trying to help you to answer for yourself are...

• How easy or hard is it going to be for me to get this program?
• How easy or hard is it going to be for me to install this program?
• How much help am I going to need and will I be able to get it?
• Will the look and feel of the app be comfortable to me?

Test Suite

You can find many sample documents in the DocBook SourceForge CVS Repository which may be useful to exercise program features:

• https://docbook.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/docbook/trunk/testdocs/tests/

Supported

These programs are available from the Ubuntu package repositories. Packages in the "main" repository should be well supported by the Ubuntu community. Packages in the "universe" repository are contributed by smaller groups or individuals and may not be as well-supported.

abiword

• repository: main
• environment: GTK2 / GNOME

• homepage: http://www.abisource.com/

• install: abiword abiword-common abiword-plugins

• community: http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/

• comments: I'm having problems importing DocBook, but it should work

bluefish

• repository: universe
• environment: GNOME

• homepage: http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html

• install: bluefish

• community: http://bfwiki.tellefsen.net/

• comments: bluefish is an HTML editor, not totally adept as an XML editor

emacs + nxml

• repository: main / universe
• environment: emacs

• homepage: http://www.thaiopensource.com/nxml-mode/

• install: nxml-mode

• community: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emacs-nxml-mode/

• comments: if you love emacs, this is the thing

geany

• environment: GTK2

• homepage: http://geany.uvena.de/

• install: geany

• community: http://geany.uvena.de/support.html

• comments: very lightweight, but still includes syntax highlighting, auto tag-closing for xml, and more

kate

• repository: main
• environment: KDE

• homepage: http://kate.kde.org/

• install: kate kate-plugins

• community: http://kate.kde.org/contact.php

• comments: installed by default with Kubuntu
  • great option for kate, use it for all my editing
  • code folding / unfolding is handled very nicely

gedit

• repository: main
• environment: GNOME

• homepage: http://www.gnome.org/projects/gedit

• install: gedit

• community:
• comments: installed by default with Ubuntu

lyx

• repository: universe
• environment: Qt / xforms

• homepage: http://www.lyx.org

• install: lyx

• community: http://www.lyx.org/internet/

• comments: LaTeX oriented but can import / export DocBook

  • What You See Is What You Mean (WYSIWYM) works beautifully
  • templates seem to be broken at the moment

mlview

• repository: universe
• environment: Gnome

• homepage: http://freecode.com/projects/gnome-mlview

• install: mlview

• community: http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mlview-list

• comments: looks promising, haven't thoroughly tested it yet

OpenOffice.org Writer

• repository: main
• environment: (originally Java, but now ?)

• homepage: http://www.openoffice.org

• install: openoffice.org

• community: http://support.openoffice.org/index.html

• comments: OOo3 Writer allows to save (File/Save as…) any document (ODF or html) as docbook (defaults to an "article", not a "book") and reopen it for editing. The structuration of the docbook (sections) depends on the systematic use of the Heading 1, 2, 3, etc. of the word processor.

  • WritingDocbookWithOpenOffice describes procedure to use OOo to edit DocBook

Quanta+

• repository: main
• environment: KDE

• homepage: http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/

• install: quanta

• community: http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/bugs.php

• comments: looks similar to kate, but has some nice tools for validation etc.

  • doesn't have the DocBook 4.3 XML DTD out of the box

  • no missing dependencies in Kubuntu dapper
  • in Ubuntu dapper, a few dependency problems
    • a few needed packages are not installed by "apt-get quanta"
    • installing kubuntu-desktop is one easy way to fix it
    • I should try to find out what extra packages I needed to install
      • then I should report it as a bug!
  • on Ubuntu dapper, sometimes it freezes for me

  • excellent tutorial http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/tutorials/quanta-docbook/quanta.html

SciTE

• repository: universe
• environment: Scintilla

• homepage: http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html

• install: scite

• community: http://mailman.lyra.org/mailman/listinfo/scite-interest

• comments: on dapper SciTE crashes for me, maybe OK on breezy?
  • scriptable and extensible through Python

vim + xmledit

• repository: main
• environment: vim

• homepage: http://www.vim.org/

• install: console vim comes installed by default, gtk frontend is vim-gtk

• community: http://www.vim.org/community.php

• comments:

  • VimHowto

  • Vim as an XML Editor

  • Vim as an XML Editor at Vim Wiki (see comments)

  • Vim also supports many features like code folding, spell checking, <your favourite feature>

Unsupported

These programs are not available in the Ubuntu package repositories. Some packages may not be included due to licensing restrictions. Perhaps you would like to volunteer to package one of these programs for Ubuntu? There is certainly nothing wrong with using these programs, but you may need to turn to their own user community if you need assistance.

Butterfly XML

• environment: Java

• homepage: http://www.butterflyxml.org/

• install: http://www.butterflyxml.org/modules.php?name=Downloads

• community: http://www.butterflyxml.org/modules.php?name=Forums

• comments: screenshots look intriguing, haven't tried it yet

Serna Free - Open Source XML Editor

• environment: QT / Python / C++
• Platforms: Microsoft Windows™ (2000, XP, Vista), Linux, Mac OS X, and Sun Solaris/SPARC

• homepage: http://www.syntext.com/products/serna-free/

• install: http://www.syntext.com/downloads/serna-free/

• community: http://forum.syntext.com/

• comments: Just great !

jEdit + XML / XmlIndenter / XQuery / XSLT / JTidyPlugin

• environment: Java

• homepage: http://www.jedit.org/

• install: http://www.jedit.org/index.php?page=quickstart

• community: http://community.jedit.org/

• comments: nice if you use both Linux and Windows
  • once I got the hang of the XML plugins and debug functions, I think this is my favorite XML editor so far

Vex

• environment: Java / Eclipse
• component: Eclipse

• homepage: http://vex.sourceforge.net/

• install: http://vex.sourceforge.net/install.html

• community: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=41623

• comments: doesn't support Xinclude, other than that a very nice editor interface based on Eclipse 3.0
  • can also be used as a plugin for Eclipse, but works best with 1.4 JVM and Eclipse 3.0
  • I couldn't get it to work with 1.5 JVM and Eclipse 3.1.2

  • interesting whitepaper from IBM http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-Authoring-With-Eclipse/AuthoringWithEclipse.html

Commercial Applications

These programs require you to pay money for a license, but usually included in that price is professional support from the program vendor. Several of these programs also have a Lite version with several features disabled. Lite versions are usually free for personal use but restricted.

Editix XML Editor (EditiX)

• environment: Java

• homepage: http://www.editix.com/

• lite: http://www.editix.com/download.html (30 day trial)

• community: http://www.editix.com/contact.html

• comments: not Open Source, no free version only 30 day trial

  • haven't tried it yet

Exchanger XML Editor (EXE)

• environment: Java

• homepage: http://www.exchangerxml.com/

• lite: http://www.freexmleditor.com/

• community: http://exchangerxml.com/phpBB2/

• comments: not Open Source, free to use but restricted

  • haven't tried it yet

oXygen XML Editor

• environment: Java

• homepage: http://www.oxygenxml.com/xml_editor.html

• lite: n/a 30-day free demo

• community: http://www.oxygenxml.com/forum/

• comments: Eclipse and SVN integration look nice

XMLBuddy

• environment Java / Eclipse
• component: Eclipse

• homepage: http://www.xmlbuddy.com/ (XMLBuddy Pro)

• lite: http://www.xmlbuddy.com/ (XMLBuddy)

• community: ?
• comments: looks like it could be a little old (2003?) but will give it a try
  • if the company name was "boca loca" that would mean "crazy mouth" in Spanish

XMLmind XML Editor (XXE)

• environment: Java

• homepage: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/

• lite: http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/stdedition.html

• community: http://www.xmlmind.com/mailman/listinfo/xmleditor-support

• comments: not Open Source, free to use but restricted

  • very nice interface nearly WYSIWYG, I think this is my 2nd favorite
  • supports Xincludes and can inline content including most graphics
  • sometimes adds blank lines or messes up indents when you look at the raw XML

Dead Projects

These are programs which appear to be abandoned by the author. I have included them here to answer the question, "But what about program <X>?" If you are a developer and you really like the program, perhaps you could contact the author to ask about resuming development or creating a fork.

moleskine

• environment: Gnome
• component: Scintilla

• homepage: http://micampe.it/things/moleskine

• install: http://micampe.it/things/moleskine

• community:
• comments:

conglomerate (last news in 2005)

• repository: universe
• environment: GNOME

• homepage: http://www.conglomerate.org/index.html

• install: conglomerate

• community: http://www.conglomerate.org/getting_involved.html

• comments: boxes don't display right on dapper with default settings
  • some very interesting concepts for organizing the display vs. other editors

Editor Components

Peeking at the source code, I found there is similarity between many of the programs because they are based on the same widget set or editor component. For example SciTE and Geany are both based on the Scintilla code editor component, while bluefish and gedit are based on the GtkSourceView component. The component that is used controls how the editor displays and manages code folding and syntax highlighting for example. I think it would be a useful exercise to identify the editor component used by each application.

Related Pages

• DocBook

To Do List

Programs to add

• nice list on http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/html/tools-edit.html

• check programs listed on http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/ScintillaRelated.html

  • PyPE

  • CUTE http://cute.sourceforge.net/index.html

• any other editor components akin to Scintilla?

• Jext http://www.jext.org/

• Code Browser http://code-browser.sourceforge.net/

• GtkEditor component http://gtkeditor.sourceforge.net/

• stylus / pilot ?
• adobe pagemaker ?

CategoryOffice