[Zope] - XML-style DTML code

[Wade Leftwich]

"Jeffrey P Shell" <jeffrey@Digicool.com> wrote, back on Feb 2:

[snip] 
> 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.
> 
[etc . . .]

Since DTML already has at least two different syntaxes, would it 
be hard to give it another one, that used 'regular' tags? For getting-
user-acceptance purposes it would be really good to work with as 
many HTML editors as possible, even lame ones.

Having written the above, now I see that Jeffrey said it was a 
problem "with the current syntax" in his post.

Sorry if I'm raising a point that has been covered in a more 
intelligent way already. There are just so darn many messages on 
this list . . .




Wade Leftwich
Okay Network Services, Ithaca NY
tel 607-277-1334  fax 607-272-3612