xml2rfc-xxe v0.8.0 broken by upgrade to XXE v5.5.0: fix provided

[John John]

[Retrying - I joined the xml2rfc-xxe group then posted the mail below on 17 Feb 2013.]

Summary: I just installed XXE 5.5.0 (new laptop) and after some digging, it appears the command bound to the DELETE and BACKSPACE keys used in the latest release (0.8.0) of xml2rfc-xxe has been superseded in XXE 5.5.0. Fix provided below.

Symptom: with the cursor within a text (<t>) block, DELETE and BACKSPACE no longer delete the character to the right or left. Pretty basic stuff.
These keys still work as expected in other elements (e.g. section headings, anchors or artwork) or if some text is selected (in pink).

Solution: A helpful chappy called Hussein Shafie on xmleditor-support at xmlmind.com sent me a fixed xml2rfc.xxe file. And on a Sunday too! It works for me (not fully tested I admit). He also fixed some other problems he identified that were causing error messages I sent him, taken from the java console that I enabled to debug it. See his email below.

The code from Hussein here: <http://bobbriscoe.net/tmp/xml2rfc.xxe> seems to fix the problem. I replaced the file of the same name in my installation (to find where it goes on your system, use XXE>Options>Install Add-ons>Uninstall tab>Select xml2rfc>View installation directory at bottom).

Rather than hacking your own installation, this ought to go up on the xml2rfc-xxe codebase as a rev to v0.8.0, but I won't attempt to upload it, because I'm not one of the chosen few.


Bob

At 17:41 17/02/2013, Hussein Shafie wrote:

It seems that the xml2rfc add-on uses a number of commands which no longer exist in XXE v5.5. Among these commands:

* (For sure) selectById, superseded by selectLink, quite a long time ago.

See http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/commands/selectLink.html

[Bob adds: This led to the following console error message when accessing references on xml.resource.org:
'selectById' unknown command
With his fixed code these error messages no longer come up.]

* (May be) deleteSelectionOrJoinOrDeleteChar, generally bound to BACKSPACE and DELETE, superseded deleteSelectionOrJoinBlockOrDeleteChar by as of v5.5.

See http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/commands/deleteSelectionOrJoinBlockOrDeleteChar.html

[Bob adds]: This does indeed fix the DELETE/BACKSPACE problem in <t> elements.

Would it be possible that changes to the function of BACKSPACE and
DELETE in xxe v5.5.0 have affected this addin? I would be surprised
(appalled actually), given a good software architecture shouldn't
require addins to have to be updated due to such a low level change in
their underlying platform.

Yes, XXE v5.5.0 has clearly broken the xml2rfc add-on, and we are sorry for that.

We confess that we never attempt to maintain any backward compatibility for the XXE commands and Java APIs. This makes it impossible for third-party programmers to deliver add-ons which survive XXE releases.
---
PS: The CSS of xml2rfc is a bit extreme (it attempts to display *all* the attributes in the styled view), which poses one major compatibility problem with XXE v5. However, this problem is less severe than the one you have reported. The CSS problem just makes the styled view of an RFC very ugly to look at.

[Bob adds: See fix for this css problem in a following post]