# tip-of-the-day: use a validating editor

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/tip-of-the-day-use-a-validating-editor/291>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [July 8, 2007, 9:35am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/tip-of-the-day-use-a-validating-editor/291 "2007-07-08T09:35:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2007, 9:35am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/tip-of-the-day-use-a-validating-editor/291/1 "2007-07-08T09:35:59Z")

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I’ve said this before, but want to emphasize this again: anybody working  
on CSL styles or the CSL schema should be using a proper RNG-validating  
XML editor. Doing this stuff by hand is really counter-productive, both  
for you and for me.

Just as an example, right now I count 50 (!) errors in the IEEE style  
that Ramesh just submitted. It would take me hours to fix this; hours I  
just don’t have these days (we’ll have to rewrite the style using the  
updated schema).

If, OTOH, he had validated the style against the schema, I wouldn’t have  
to do that. And if he’d used a validating editor, I’m pretty sure he  
would have finished the style quicker.

Likewise, testing new schema changes is much quicker and easier when you  
actually see how an editor will present options to a user.

My recommendations:

```
- the emacs nxml mode (free)
- oXygen (commercial)

```

I’d give a slight preference to the latter for schema development.

Bruce