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Free version of Serna XML Editor released

Posted by timoff on Mar 25, 2009 9:07 AM EDT · 2 comments
Syntext

Syntext has released a free version of Serna - a cross-platform WYSIWYG XML editor. The free version is intended for use by open-source project developers, students, and other non-commercials. It is written in C++ and Python, employs XSLT+XSL-FO for document rendering, and has a C++ and Python API`s.

Syntext has released a free version of Serna - WYSIWYG XML editor: http://www.syntext.com/products/serna-free/ The free version is intended for use by open-source project developers, students, and other non-commercials.

The major difference from other XML editors is the use of XSLT+XSL-FO processing for styling documents in real-time. Unlike CSS, this way allows the generated (and localized) content to be conditionally displayed in documents. A good example of this approach is Norman Walsh`s stylesheets for DocBook.

Serna Free Highlights:

Written in C++ and Python using QT GUI library
Works on multiple platforms: Linux, Mac OS X, Sun Solaris/SPARC, Windows (2000, XP, Vista)
Designed to author structured documents: product documentation, user manuals, online help (but not scripts, stylesheets, configs, etc)
Supports Dockbook and DITA (specialization aware)
Employs XSLT transformation and XSL-FO stylesheets to visualize the documents being edited
Extensions can be made using C++ and Python APIs (though Java integration is possible using JPype (http://jpype.sourceforge.net/)

The difference between the free and commercial versions is mostly in the enterprise functionality and can be seen at:

http://www.syntext.com/products/serna-feature-matrix/

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