Xopus Released

Q42 has finally released the commercial version of their browser based XML editor xopus (no COM components, this thing is a pure DHTML based WYSIWYG XML editor). Xopus is pretty slick, although its architecture makes it difficult to integrate with .NET (not impossible though, I posted a bit of code a while back to do this with an older version)... unless of course you were creating a DHTML based SOA, in which case you would probably have much better luck... it is just those darn postbacks and server controls that don't fit their model.

8 Comments

  • It does look slick...in internet explorer.



    It's really starting to bug me that professional product developers can't be bothered to adhere to standards. I can't even view the homepage in anything but IE.

  • You do realize that Xopus used to work in Mozilla (which the site looks perfect in) before they probably realized it was too much of a moving target right? I've still got the open source version hanging around somewhere...



    I love and use Mozilla, but if you have ever done any heavy DOM apps, you would know that Mozilla, even though it's got the right goals, has some crippling bugs hidden in there. Other than IE and Mozilla, no other browser can even come close to supporting something like Xopus. Maybe Safari one day...but the guys at Opera have pretty much shown they could care less about the DOM spec.



    Why should they support any browser that wont support the standards their products, and jobs, depend on?

  • Well, the CONTENTEDITABLE attribute, where most of the functionality needed for this is, isn't exactly standard... it should be though!

  • Jon,



    Come on. Moving target? The DOM is an industry standard. Mozilla has thee most complete support for it out there. The only people to blame for incompatibilities are Microsoft(and Xopus for coding to proprietary extensions?).



    All I'm saying is; why tie yourself to proprietary extensions of the DOM when it's simple to work around the stupitidy of MS*. Most other browsers adhere to the DOM standard (of event detection, and event binding for example).



    And BTW. I can't view the homepage in mozilla at all. All I get is the title on my tab. Although, to be fair, this is most likely because of my using some random nightly build.



    *I love most MS technology. Just can't stand the way they abuse the DOM.

  • This type of thing just isn't possible without the extensions though. It isn't a matter of MS somehow impeeding standards, it is a matter of MS innovating so that developers have the tools they need to create richer applications.



    Try implementing the ContentEditable attribute's functionality with DHTML... it just ain't going to happen.

  • Xopus worked on Mozilla long before Mozilla introduced the contenteditable stuff. All built on the DOM stuff. I believe it was Q42 who was working on the contenteditable hack as well. So yes...it can be done in DHTML, and it was.



    Mozilla has the best DOM support, but it also has more DOM bugs than the IE implementation. Perhaps that's only to be expected, but it's still true. I know for a fact that the replaceChild() method is broken in Moz having recently run into it.



    Try getting a DOM2 script to work in any two Mozilla versions released at least a month apart. Good luck...start talking about point releases and the changed or broken things from version to version are uncountable. They need to go to a 6 month release cycle, minimum.

  • The previous versions of Xopus that I am aware of actually required an additional plugin to be installed on top of mozilla to enable the contenteditable stuff, they didn't use DHTML for it. I am not aware of any DHTML implementation of content editable... of course, I could be mistaken, but that is my understanding.

  • OK. I'll admit that what really set me off on this tangent is that the homepage wouldn't load.



    I'd also like to say that I have no idea about Xopus or it's capabilities, but would like to learn more about it.

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