Paul Hill asked for information on what an XML editor might do with IDs and IDREFs - if anything. I'm surprised that so many opinions are expressed in this group without much evidence of practical experience in, or attempts to learn, XML since that is central to the stated purpose of the group. John Halleck has just expressed a similar view and pointed out that we have an associated website with pointers to much useful information. I hope, with him to see a change to more emphasis on coming up with realistic examples of CaveXML which can be tested and serve as a base for converging on an agreed standard. In the process we would also use existing tools and comment on their good and bad points as an to creating new ones perhaps more fitted for our purposes.
However, to answer Paul, I have looked (albeit briefly) at three validating XML editors, all coded in Java and thus available across all platforms (URLs at http://www.karto.ethz.ch/neumann/caving/cavexml/ under XML Tools).
XEENA and XMLOperator both provide a list of available IDs for selection, and only allow entry from it. If an invalid value is entered in source mode (or outside the tools in an ordinary text editor), the inconsistency will be detected on validation or during subsequent loading. Merlot did not have any comparable help with IDs, but would, I think, perform appropriate validation (I didn't check). Of these three editors, I rank XMLOperator ahead of XEENA by a whisker on usability but slightly behind on features; Merlot doesn't appeal.
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