9 23 2006-02-23T13:32:55-05:00 $Date: 2006-02-23 18:38:55 -0500 (Thu, 23 Feb 2006) $ NormanWalsh 2006Norman Walsh On white space and mixed content. A rant. This is a rant. A tirade. A lunch-time release of pent up frustration. Move along, nothing to see here. Hey, you! Yeah, you! XML editing tool vendor! Lemme ask you something, why is it that you think you can fuck with the white space in my mixed content? White space in mixed content is significant. If I put it there, leave it alone! If I didn't put it there, keep your “helpful” fingers out of it! If I typed this: This is what I typed. It's what I meant. If I meant something else, I would have typed something else. If you so completely hide the details from me that I can't tell what I typed, that's a bug. Leave my white space alone!]]> You aren't allowed to turn it into thisWell, technically, we could argue or maybe agree to disagree about the white space before the opening para tag because that isn't mixed content. At least it isn't mixed content if you've validated the document and determined that it isn't, you know, mixed content. If you haven't validated, you're not allowed to muck with the white space there, either. Get over it.: This is what I typed. It's what I meant. If I meant something else, I would have typed something else. If you so completely hide the details from me that I can't tell what I typed, that's a bug. Leave my white space alone!]]> I'm talking to you, XMLmind. And for pity's sake, you sure as hell aren't allowed to turn it into this: This is what I typed. It's what I meant. If I meant something else, I would have typed something else. If you so completely hide the details from me that I can't tell what I typed, that's a bug. Leave my white space alone!]]> That's you, XMLSpy. Emacs of course, leaves it alone. Arbortext's editor leaves it alone. Oxygen appears to do the right thing. Even xed gets it rightNo, I have no intention of trying all the other myriad editors out there. This is a rant, not a carefully crafted, impartial review. All tools suck. And don't tell me you have some configuration switch that makes the results come out right. Unless that switch is the default, your editor is broken. It's not rocket science folks. My white space is…mine!