Both of these editors have the ability to generate well-formed and valid XML documents. It is not the goal of this report to make a recommendation for selecting one of these packages over the other. The purpose is to provide a brief introduction to both FrameMaker 7.0 and XMetaL 3 as XML editors.
The table below is included as a short summary of some of the areas to consider when evaluating these XML editors. The comments are subjective, based on the author's limited experience with each of these products.
| Item |
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| Ease of Use | Those comfortable with earlier version of software can learn this more quickly than others. | Novice can learn easily. |
| Validation Flexibility | More control and dynamic feedback in Structure View. | Sufficient support for the majority of documents. Default rules checking very helpful. |
| Editing Flexibility | Document and Structure Views with extensive menus and keyboard shortcuts are great for experienced users. The lack of compression of parent elements in Document View is annoying. | Ability to compress elements in Document View is a big advantage. Structured view is not advanced enough to be overly useful unless the document is very complex. |
| Cost | ~ $ 700 USD. | ~ $400 USD. |
| Document Rules and Formatting Appearance | All in one documents with both grammar and style included in EDD format. While import and export of DTD is possible, this is not an industry a standard however. | Supports official DTD format. Final document appearance requires an additional style sheet. |