What XML Tools Do You Use?

Omega1045 asks: "What XML tools do you use? XML Spy? EditPad? A pen, notepad, scanner, and a good OCR program? XML is now becoming more than just hype. XML, SOAP Web Services, and Enterprise Integration (EI) are really taking off from the number and type of contract opportunities I am seeing and receiving. Until recently, I was doing most of my XML by hand. Other than the nostalgia for those early HTML days, it is really eating into my time. I have started trying XML Spy, but to buy it will be a big hit in the wallet (which I am willing to do if it is the best thing out there). What does Slashdot recommend?"

Comments

xmlspy

[rogue_gambit]

I use xmlspy at work, and it really is the best thing I have tried.

Particularly the schema editor and the Authentic component (which is now free (as in beer)).

In litteraly no time you can throw together a complex schema and make a nice gui interface for entering data which validates against said schema.

It is definitely pricey and I can't say that I would have bought it for myself, but if you have to deal with a lot of XML then it is truly worth it.

First post?

Interactive structured drawing

[derinax]

I built an entire web-based interactive Expo map using Sodipodi (sodipodi.sourceforge.net). It was very easy to edit the native XML code (actually, SVG). I found the combination of Sodipodi and vi was as powerful and far more flexible in terms of optimizing the resultant code (e.g. search and replace &macros) than a proprietary structured program like Illustrator.

God, I can't say enough about how cool Sodipodi has become.

Good luck finding a proper viewer for the interactive code, however. Mozilla+svg has not even been of alpha quality-- all proofing had to be in Windows, IE + Adobe's SVG Viewer.

vim and my brain

[GusherJizmac]

and xmllint.

VIM rules it all

[mystran]

I've tried few editors, but VIM (with scripting for folding and automatic adding of end-tags) is best I've found for both my XML and XHTML needs.