I like having the FOSI panels available. If nothing else they make a FOSI
more readable. Somethings are still hidden and tricky to get to, and
eventually you just get too many panels open. As Suzanne mentions there
are a lot of nice features that can make life easier.
BUT as I start to take advanatage of standard things like entities, the
panels stop displaying information.
I switch to the tagged view when doing big changes and also use TextPad.
Problen with direct editing in textpad is if you use some of the other
editors the file gets locked.
So yes, each has its place in my day to day work 😉
..dan
> Both FOSI interfaces have their strengths. In my experience, utilizing the
> best
> of both can make FOSI development and maintenance faster and easier.
>
> The FOSI style panels interface has several very nice features that are
> not
> available with the tagged editor:
> * You can start a style panel from the document in order to see easily
> exactly
> which e-i-c is being matched. This can be a huge time saver.
> * You can find the next element(s) in the document that match(es) the
> element
> in the style panel.
> * Using Resolve in a style panel traces the source of each characteristic
> value
> in the e-i-c and enables display of their style panels, which is another
> huge
> time saver.
> * You can use the Query menu in the All FOSI Components panel and the All
> Elements-in-Context panel to find elements by name or expression and list
> them
> in a separate panel, from which you can start a panel for the desired
> e-i-cs.
> * The Query menu has an item to find and list all e-i-cs in the FOSI that
> do
> not match elements in the DTD (which makes them pseudo-elements). Check
> this
> list for typos that could be turning DTD elements into pseudo-elements.
> * Another Query item finds all DTD elements that do not have e-i-cs in
> the
> FOSI. If nothing is listed, maybe the FOSI is finished 🙂
> * You can be in more than one place in the FOSI at the same time. For
> example,
> you can display panels for All Counters, All Text Variables, All
> Elements-in-Context, All Float Locations, on screen at the same time. This
> eliminates a lot of time-consuming scrolling in the tagged editor.
> * The page layout panels are helpful in understanding and coding
> pagesets,
> quintuples, and anything else page-related. The calculation capability is
> great!
> It shows the calculated flowtext depth and also indicates when a change to
> a
> page layout value requires a re-calculation.
> * You can link from a style panel to the corresponding place in the
> tagged
> editor.
> The FOSI tagged editor has its own features, some of which are necessary
> but not
> available in the style panels interface:
> * Entities can be declared, displayed, counted, and found.
> * Some things can only be entered in the tagged editor, such as
> specifying
> gitype.
> * The tagged FOSI editor is based on the Editor, with similar menus.
> * As in the Editor, ACL can be entered or sourced at the command line to
> manipulate the tagged FOSI just like a document in the Editor. For
> example,
> keymappings, while loops, etc., can be used to make repetitive changes.
> * The Show Ids panel is very useful for fixing completeness and compile
> errors;
> locating each use of charsubsets, counters, strings, float locations,
> etc.;
> finding string variables that are not declared and initialized.
> * A FOSI in the tagged editor can be formatted with a FOSI. I use this
> capability to highlight stuff such as variables with certain names;
> categories
> such as Reset; Specvals that apply only to the Edit window display; etc.
> Sometimes, though, an ascii editor is the quickest way to go; for example,
> when
> you want to change the name of a variable or charsubset or whatever that
> is used
> dozens or hundreds of times in a FOSI. Just take care not to do anything
> that
> will make the FOSI out of context.
>
> Suzanne
>