What free Windows text editor should I use to look at MIF files?

[Fred Ridder]

Sorry, Shmuel, but this is incorrect on a couple of levels. 

First of all, it's simply impossible for MIF to have been *based on* XML. MIF has existed since the very beginning of FrameMaker in 1986. XML, on the other hand, was initially defined (XML 1.0 first edition) in 1998, 12 years after MIF was first included in a released product.  

Second, the syntax may look similar, but the similarity extends no deeper than the use of angle brackets as delimiters. 
In MIF, both the property/parameter name and its value or values (which may themselves be bracket-delimited properties) are contained inside the brackets. The end of each element is marked by a simple right angle-bracket. This is not a problem in simple, single-value elements that begin and end on the same line; but to accommodate multi-line elements have multiple properties nested within it, it is necessary to include a commentary string that identifies what element is closed by the immediately preceding bracket since all brackets have identical appearance. 
In XML, on the other hand, the angle brackets only contain the name of the element type. The content (e.g., the value of the property or parameter) is *outside* the angle brackets, delimited by a bracketed start tag (e.g., <elementX>) and a corresponding explicitly named end tag (e.g., </elementX>) .

When your text editor highlights it as XML, it would highlight the opening angle bracket and parameter name string as if they were XML start tags. But the parameter values would not be highlighted because they appear in a location where XML does not allow text. Depending on your editor, numerical parameter values might be highlighted just because they are numerical. This degree of highlighting might be useful, but it is essentially accidental rather than by design.

-Fred Ridder

> From: shmuelw1 at gmail.com
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: What free Windows text editor should I use to look at MIF files?
> 
> MIF is based on XML, so select XML highlighting in the text editor. I 
> just tried it in SciTE and it looks good after selecting XML. It may 
> also work in NotePad++ but I didn't try it.
> 
> --
> Shmuel Wolfson
> Technical Writer
> 052-763-7133

 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers-frameusers.com/attachments/20141005/6b12d6d7/attachment.htm>