[Zope] - XML-style DTML code

[Jeffrey P Shell]

>From: "Christopher G. Petrilli" <petrilli@amber.org>
> My goal was to provide an obviously incomplete fix to the current
> problem of editing in HTML editors, which is what sparked this.  The fix
> I proposed fixes that.  Once I have a proper XML editor with full XSL
> support, it'll be easier to hypothesise about solutions, but until then,
> it's all hand waving.

The editing-in-HTML-editors will always be a problem with the current
syntax, in my opinion, because (real code here, and code i'm not at all
ashamed to have written):

<TD><SELECT NAME="category">
 <!--#in "Categories(active=1)"-->
  <OPTION VALUE="<!--#var label-->"
  <!--#if "(REQUEST.has_key('category') and
            category==label)"-->SELECTED<!--#/if-->
  ><!--#var label--></OPTION>
 <!--#/in-->
</SELECT></TD>

will give just about any editor a headache.  Cyberstudio, at a minimum,
moves the comment tags outside of the <SELECT> statements.  Dreamweaver
might handle this a little better, but as you drag and drop the visual
representation around it tends to get out of sync.

This same problem hangs around ASP code with only one real visual editor
existing (Drumbeat) - and most drumbeat generated sites I've been too have
been as much fun as a root canal in slow motion.

Since ColdFusion uses 'regular' tags, it's relatively easy to extend
editors to handle them, albeit it usually in a limited fashion.

And WebObjects, which introduces only one special tag into the HTML
environment, requires another parser to handled the accompanying .wod file
to be visual (.wod being full of statements similar to HTMLGen instances.)

I don't even know what else is out there.  I think Vignette's StoryServer
can be used with DreamWeaver in the initial stages of design, but once
StoryServers code starts getting into the HTML code they advise not going
visual anymore (i think StoryServer uses *twitch* TCL in their pages).

In any case, this is a very meaty problem - and not just for Zope.  (or in
other words "ohhhhh, it's so much worse than you think" :)

stared-down-this-barrel-just-enough-times-to-even-copy-this-tired-sig'ly
yrs,

--jPS           -                         -   /
jeffrey@Digicool.com - http://www.digicool.com/