Daniel Dekany wrote: > Tuesday, July 29, 2008, 5:44:36 AM, Jean Jordaan wrote: > > [snip] >> While I don't use a split view all the time, when I need it, I REALLY >> need it. > > It's not rare that I find myself using it when writing documentation > in Word either. Also looking at the TODO reveals that someone else has > already requested it too (unless that was me). And this all is really > something when we are talking about a feature whose lack is not an > absolute show stopper; users used to report only those, and maybe > don't even realize when a new feature would make their work more > convenient, not to mention writing an RFE. So maybe the idea that > split view is not important should be revisited. > > Something that could *somewhat* make it less important is a bookmark > feature (Add bookmark X and Go to bookmark X), but XXE doesn't have > that either. Not out-of-the-box at least. It also certainly not good > for the popularity of the product that out-of-the-box (yes, > customization is important, but the default configuration should be as > good as possible, especially as that gives the first impression about > the product) it doesn't even have a navigation (kind of ToC) > *parallel* with the normal view, so you can't just use that for > somewhat redeeming the lack of the above mentioned features. > (Switching between style sheets is slow, especially for big documents, > so one has to customize XXE to have parallel ToC... and even then, > that navigation view is quite awkward, as you have to select > (double-click) the titles, not just move the caret there, and then > switch the focus back to the parallel normal view, also, the ToC view > takes screen place from the normal view, unless you constantly resize > it back-and-forth, which is of course annoying). BTW, yet another > navigation issue is that if I follow a link, I can't jump back (unless > there was only one link in the document that pointed to the target), > as XXE doesn't seem to remember from which point did I jump there, not > even if the document wasn't modified at all since the clicking of the > link. It should work like in modern Web browsers, as far as the XXE > didn't lose the track due to too fundamental document modifications. > > To sum it up, I always thought that XXE could become significantly > better for editing non-trivial documentations if it puts more focus on > the navigation tasks. But currently, I believe, there is negative > synergy coming from the lack of many common navigation features. I'm > not sure that the XXE team realizes this, and that they do that with > the proper weight. >
Thank you for this constructive email. It deserves a detailed and honest answer. --> You are right when you say that the XXE team is not really conscious of the navigation problems you have. Everyone here at XMLmind daily uses XXE to write non-trivial documentation. A large document is *always* split into several XML files. A file contains a chapter, a section, an appendix, a glossary, etc. In practice, we always work on small XML files. In this case: * We don't need to have a good ToC. * We don't need bookmarks. * We don't need to open the same document in two different windows: one window to see a part of the document and the other window to see another part of the document. * We don't have performance problems. For time to time, we just need to collapse/expand some parts of the document. --> Now, some facts: [1] XXE is designed to author ``topics'' (? la DITA) and then to assemble them into a master document. XXE is not designed to author large monolithic documents. We do not intend to change this. [2] Supporting bookmarks out of the box is not difficult to implement. However, we need to find a good user interface for adding, viewing (e.g. something displayed in the margins of the document view), navigating and removing the bookmarks. [3] Implementing an ad-hoc ToC is out of question. A CSS style sheet like DocBook's document structure view should be OK *if* we find how to improve the way the different views of a document are synchronized. [4] XXE has not been designed to allow opening the same document in two different windows. We currently don't see how this feature could be implemented. [5] Yes, XXE should work like in modern Web browsers in terms of navigation. --> Our secret TODO list[*]: * Get rid of the DITA Open Toolkit. Replace it by process commands. Bundle DITA support. Write "DITA for the Impatient" (see http://www.xmlmind.com/tutorials.html). * We are currently working very hard on XMLmind Document Repository. XMLmind Document Repository should allow to solve the following problems: Who did what, when, why. Show me the changes. Approve or reject a change. * XMLmind XML Editor ZZZZ Edition (i.e. not Professional Edition) will be tightly integrated to XMLmind Document Repository. Among other things, this will require improving the GUI of XXE (all Editions). These enhancements should allow to have [2] (use of the margins of a document view) and [5] (navigation between documents, within the same document, etc). This is not scheduled, but we'll try very hard to find a way to have [3] and, to a lesser extent, [4]. --- [*] The Users Wish List -- http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/wish_list.html -- is just a think tank. It is *not* our TODO list.
