[thelist] Re: XStandard vs. HTMLArea

Clive R Sweeney clive at designshift.com
Thu Oct 7 12:15:06 CDT 2004


Tim Burgan wrote:
> I'm creating a content management area for a website I'm building.
> 
> I'm thinking of using XStandard [1], HTMLArea [2], or a similar 
> alternative in the form of a Java Applet.

Your two main candidates are XStandard and HTMLarea. Does it matter to 
you that XStandard is promoted as an "advanced, standards-based XHTML 
WYSIWYG editor" while the examples given on the HTMLarea website appear 
to be very old-style markup?

I'm have no real experience implementing CMS (that's handled by my 
daughter, Sarah, also on thelist), but I was really impressed with the 
info presented on the XStandard site, especially on the page entitled, 
"WYSIWYGs & 'Dirty' Code" -- 
http://www.xstandard.com/page.asp?p=58E6C3F7-E5DF-414F-8AA5-4C8BD2BEFE2A
They really seem to have a commitment to quality output.

On the other hand, on the site promoting HTMLarea -- 
http://www.interactivetools.com/products/htmlarea/ -- I find that it 
currently cannot output XHTML and there doesn't seem to be any reference 
to standards. And, of course, warning flags go up when I see <FONT> tags 
in their samples, as in this screenshot:
http://www.interactivetools.com/common/htmlarea/htmlsourcescreenshot.gif

-- 
Clive R Sweeney
Designshift | Durham NC




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