New Project Proposal (or not..)

[Stephen Rust <steve tp org>]

Firstly, please stop me and tell me if you know of such a project already
in progress.

Overview:

My Proposal is to create a GUI Editor for SGML based documents.  The
editor should take info in Cees de Groot's sgml editor white paper, and be
able to give basic functionality to begin with, sprouting into whatever it
can be used for.

Reasoning:

I found myself wanting to create SGML documents but without the time to
learn to code the SGML myself.  I wanted a graphical editor, but was
hardpressed to find one that wasn't commercial.  The one found was psgmls
plugin for Emacs which in Cees de Groot's words, is "not much above a text
editor" itself. (or similar meaning).  And so, I became interested in
finding or creating an editor...

UNIX has a very powerful core.  With very many utilities designed to do
their job and do it well.  By writing front-ends to these tools, and still
utilizing their strength, very powerful GUI applications can also be
developed.  Re-inventing core functionalities provided by other command
line utilities (like jade, etc.) is not worthwhile and breaks the UNIX
model.  (in my opinion).  Its better to use the existing functionality and
just add on to the functionality by supplying a graphical element to it.

Specifics:

	- All SGML writing is handled internally.  You supply the look and
          layout by dragging components around, not writing sgml code

	- Processing calls existing external tools to verify code, and to
          export/import in any number of formats.  When new functionality
          of sgmltools are created, a simple recompile of the GUI will
          inherit that functionality.

	- New processor to actually create the SGML from the GUI layout
          will most like need to be created.

	- If a good interface to the sgml engines are created, lots of
	  use could be put into the entire gnome project, tying
	  documentation together.  And would enhance the DocBook usage
	  specifically.

Thoughts:

- Is it best to create a brand new sgml editor, or create plugins to
  existing editors?  Perhaps both?

- How large a project would this be?

- A good name for the editor would be needed.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
Steve