Coding and coding...

Coffee is ready, and I am still coding... At this rate, I wonder, if everything will be ready before september for XPontus. I might need to step back and look at the program from a distance to see what I am really missing. The more I code, the more I find it difficult to define most of components as plugins. What should/can be extended?? how easily can it be done?? :p, Well I guess I have to answer that, publish the release and wait for comments.

XML lexer separated plugin in action with syntax highlighting using Javacc

About XPontus rewrite progress

I am getting somewhere with the plugin framework JPF. I have been able to write plugins so far for the following "stuff":

• The ioc container to use with XPontus (the default is spring framework container)
• The menubar : A simple action can be added to the menubar without much hassle
• The look and feel of the application : This is easily done

The screenshot of the day showing the main window

I am working on XPontus plugins. When the core architecture is completed, the rest will be almost trivial to add or update. I've been successfull with maven multiproject modules. It is amusing to have 20 projects opened in a Java IDE.

I am coding a lot for one my projects, JHTMLCleaner. The first beta will be out shortly. I wanted the application to run as

• an applet
• a GUI application
• a servlet
• a console application
• an Apache Ant task

The first beta will probably only feature a GUI while I'll be working on other parts. It will also help me by getting quick feedback from users.
In the meantime I'll be thinking about integration with XPontus XML Editor as a plugin.

I've been working on JHTMLCleaner and XPontus those weeks.

More people seem to support and use XPontus XML Editor on a regular basis. I am working hard on the upcoming 1.0.0 pre1 release. It is taking some time to redesign everything but it is going on well. In the previous releases I wasn't thinking about XPontus integration in other applications and this will be corrected.

JHTMLCleaner initial release should be out in few weeks.

XPontus daily screenshot

The first pre-release and last maintenance release.

The first pre-release of XPontus XML Editor will be release today or tomorrow. The tests seems ok. I have a little trouble with shell scripts for the jar installer but it will be alright.

It will be the last build of the first code branch of XPontus. I cannot maintain this version anymore. Lots of people asked me all kind of questions about integration, about selling some components of the editor, etc. This cannot be achieved easily without a proper knowledge of the code. Most parts of the current release candidate are tied together.

I am going to keep working only on the development branch of XPontus so that the second pre-release will be code completion enabled. I am designing the new architecture around plugins. It takes time, but when I will be done with it, it will be easier adding new features and other stuff.

Stay tuned

I am fixing few bugs before releasing the third release candidate. A recent files menu has been added and code indentation has been corrected. I am few days away from releasing it. After some more tests it will be ready.

I am also working hard on the new development branch of XPontus XML Editor which is plugin based. It will be available maybe this summer. Apache Maven is used to manage the project and its sub modules(plugins).

I will release the rc3 version of XPontus XML Editor next week. The application is pretty stable now but still misses some features.
I will only provide bug fixes to the stable version without new features added. It was a good experience and it showed the limitations and the issues with the way I coded the application.

I am working again on the development release which already have code completion and "of course" lots of bugs! :p . It shouldn't be long to get it done and release a pre1 version, maybe june?

Stay tuned!

I am taking some time off for now. I will try to get a bug fix release ready for next month which will be likely called rc3 .

I have been working on a new project called JHTMLCleaner . The software is almost ready. I am expecting to release it in few weeks.
I also received lots of comments about XPontus XML Editor current version. I am working on the next release too, but it will take time to get it done, the way I want it to be.

I am working on the user interface and code completion of XPontus XML Editor today.

I am thinking about the new API of XPontus. Most stuff depends on the main window which act sometimes as a wrapper for helper classes. I should get rid of the dependencies upon the main window. I will have to rewrite the API taking into account that the editor must provide extensions points where a plugin might "be plugged".

The 1.0.0rc2 version of XPontus XML Editor(http://xpontus.sf.net) was released today. I am about to get back working on the development version. Here is the list of features to add and test :

• xml code completion
• xpath
• xquery and stx support for transformations
• full caching of dtd and schemas
• better use of the docking framework
• virtual file system support
• tree view for xml editing
• xml code outline view
• xml signature support
• api to integrate xpontus into other applications

Here are the new user interface improvements before the 1.0.0rc2 releases. The tabbedpane now has close icons. On a double click, the document container is maximized.

The 1.0.0rc2 release of xpontus is ready. I will build the installers this week.
Here are the problems which have been corrected :
- Encoding detection
- Schema validation

Options has been added to customize the token colors.

Among the new features there are :
- auto close of xml tags
- package installers for solaris and freebsd
- dtd and schema caching when validating xml files

The code has been cleaned up and more comments have been added.

Code completion(based on dtd or schema introspection) is here but still very experimental.
Here are the remaining problems for the upcoming release :
When content assist is enabled, the typing is very slow.

• Code completion database doesn't process dtd subsets (the parser doesn't ready any sub-dtd)
• Plugin support is a must as lots of features will be added
• Some code must be rewritten to take advantage of the docking framework
• Virtual filesystem support is not complete
• XML Catalog is incomplete too
• XPath support doesn't support namespaces yet
• My other project jxsltdoc is in progress, it will be added as well as a schema documentation tool(xssdoc and dtddoc)
  

I finished the outline view to browse code structure and I re-coded lots of classes to make full use of the new docking framework.

The latest screenshot

I am a little bit late for the release, working on the user interface. I want to second release candidate to be great in terms of user experience, features and usability. It will be a great move towards a full featured XML editor.

Here is a screenshot of the new UI(I am making full use of the docking windows library)

I added syntax highlighting for XQUERY and DTD today. I will try to complete the code completion for XML the week end with some help from IRC.

I am now working on code completion. I hope to finish it and test the application before the end of the month. Inserting the end of a xml tag automatically is done, I am working on providing XML completion via schema introspection and it won't take that long.