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

Format

program (+ plugin1 / plugin2 ...)

• repository: main / universe
• environment: Gnome / KDE / Java / command-line / ?
• homepage: project homepage
• install: apt-get install ...
• community: program community resources link
• comments: comment 1
  • comment 2

Test Suite

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

• http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/docbook/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 / Gnome2

• homepage: http://www.abisource.com/

• install: apt-get install abiword abiword-common abiword-plugins

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

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

bluefish

• repository: universe
• environment: Gnome

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

• install: apt-get install bluefish

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

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

conglomerate

• repository: universe
• environment: Gnome

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

• install: apt-get 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

emacs + nxml

• repository: main / universe
• environment: emacs

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

• install: apt-get install nxml-mode

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

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

kate

• repository: main
• environment: KDE

• homepage: http://kate.kde.org/

• install: apt-get 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

lyx

• repository: universe
• environment: Qt / xforms

• homepage: http://www.lyx.org

• install: apt-get 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://www.freespiders.org/projects/gmlview/

• install: apt-get 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: apt-get install openoffice.org

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

• comments: I have not been able to get OOo to work with DocBook on Linux

  • WritingDocbookWithOpenOffice describes procedure to use OOo to edit DocBook

Quanta+

• repository: main
• environment: KDE

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

• install: apt-get 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

  • missing dependencies in Ubuntu dapper
  • sometimes freezes for me on dapper

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

SciTE

• repository: universe
• environment: Scintilla

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

• install: apt-get 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

  • [http://www.pinkjuice.com/howto/vimxml/tasks.xml Vim as an XML Editor]

  • [http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=583 Vim Tip 583 (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

Exchanger XML Lite

• environment: Java

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

• install: http://www.freexmleditor.com/

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

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

  • free lite version with pro version available
  • haven't tried it yet

Geany

• environment: GTK2

• homepage: http://geany.uvena.de/

• install: http://geany.uvena.de/manual/index.html

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

• comments: must be built form source code, haven't tried it yet

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

Related Pages

• DocBook

To Do List

Programs to add

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

  • PyPE

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

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

• any other editor components akin to Scintilla?

Additions

• use tabs or tables to make attributes align better?

CategoryDocteam