dado0583@h... wrote:

> Hi,
> I'm currently writing an XSLT Editor tool as part of a university
> project. I would like to know what those of you that use XSLT look for
> in an XSLT editor.
> 
> Currently, the main features will be:
> - Load a DTD or schema, which is shown in a tree format, so that
> users can drag and drop desired XPaths into the .xsl text window.
> - Drag and drop xslt keywords into the text editor window. So for
> value-of, the following would be inserted. <xsl:value-of select=""/>.
> Then the user can drag and drop the XPath into that tag.
> Then theres all the old favourites: colour coded tags automatic
> tag completion (depending on my programming skills), project files to
> organise work and an output viewer.

Emacs xsl-ide mode already has about 90% of this, without the drag-and-drop.
For speed, you might consider taking that as your basis, and adding the
D'n'D features to it.

Much more interesting would be a purely graphical constructor, which would
allow the user to define areas in a typographic window and specify the
source and manipulation of the information which was to go into them. Have
a look at the paper on VXT from the 2001 ACM DocEng Symposium
http://www.pms.ifi.lmu.de/publikationen/diplomarbeiten/Sacha.Berger/literatur/COMPARING-XML-QLs/Pietriga%20-%20VXT:A%20Visual%20Approach%20to%20XML%20Transformations.pdf

> Is there anything specifically related to XSLT, that anyone has found
> would be useful in an XSLT editor.

XSLT2 answered most of my requirements. The only others are personal gripes
about a few small things I think should have been done differently. 

> PS. this project will be freely availible (with source code) once I've
> 'finished' it.

Excellent. Can I enter a plea that it should be cross-platform?

///Peter
-- 
"The cat in the box is both a wave and a particle"
      -- Terry Pratchett, introducing quantum physics in _The Authentic Cat_