SLiP - a "Sorta Like Python" shorthand for XML

SLiP is a quick, alternative syntax for creating and editing XML data by hand and if you know Python, it should also be familiar.

Example:

Benefits:

• Less typing - provides a quicker and easier means for creating or editing XML
• Easier to read - creates a pleasant layout for the data with indentation and spacing
• Benefits of XML - allow for hierarchical data, unlike tabbed or other character delimited data files
• Cheap - provides a free XML editing alternative
• Editor-agnostic and Keyboard-oriented - provide a quicker, more hacker-friendly way to create XML  over point-and-click alternatives
• Works in existing editors - most Python editors (IDLE, Scintilla, etc) should accept and make working with this syntax easy

Downloads:

• SLIDE 0.2 (~2.2 MB) - a command-line PINE-like wrapper for editing XML documents with SLiP syntax via temp files in the text editor of your choosing (shown below). Available as a Windows executable.
  

• SLiPpy 0.2 (~15 KB) - A Python package for SLiP, including the source for SLIDE (slide.py), a library for translating between SLiP and XML (sliplib.py),and brief documentation (aboutSLiP.htm)

Cost:

Free (MIT license).

Documentation:

What is SLiP?
SLiP FAQ

Articles/Mentions:

IBM developerWorks - "XML Watch: Exploring alternative syntaxes for XML"
XML.com - "Look Ma, No Tags"
XMLHack.com - "Bag of new tools for editing XML in simple text form"
XML Magazin (German)

Similar Alternatives:

A Visual Comparison of XML Shorthand formats

YAML
PYX
S(cheme)XML
SOX
ONX
DL
XSLScript
XSLtxt

Status:

Version 0.2 - (April 19, 2002).

Release Goal: Stabilize most common use cases (ASCII, low-complexity XML), add initial Unicode/encodings support.

Changes:

• Initial Unicode/encodings support
• Several bug fixes (usually around mixed text/element/comment handling)
• Moved command-line conversion to two shortcut scripts, xml2slip.py and slip2xml.py, which also allow pipelineable output (ex. xml2slip input.xml > output.slp)
• Added handling for XML declarations, processing instructions, and doctype declarations
• Can handle SLiP element declarations without parentheses.
• Ability to distinguish between and output <foo></foo> and <foo/>
• SLIDE keeps track of working directory

Version 0.1 - Initial Release (April 3, 2002).

Release Goal: Get initial feedback. Let me know if you have any fixes.

Next Version:

Version 0.3 - (on hold).

Status: Started Sourceforge migration, focusing on bug triage and stabilization Release Goal: Stabilize Unicode/encodings support, improve UI

Planned Changes:

• Incorporate better encoding detection
• Better error handling
• Cleaner SLiP outputs (no unnecessary triple quotes, etc)
• Migrate to SourceForge

Future Versions:

Version 0.?? - (???).

Possible Changes:

• Add inline DTD handling
• Cleaner SLiP outputs (no unnecessary triple quotes, etc)
• Refactor parsers into classes
• Solidify API and handoffs between API, UI, and Parsers
• Notepad-esqe UI

Credits:

• Daily Chump: an IRC bot that logs from IRC to XML via a logging-specific shorthand syntax
  
• py2exe: package for creating (easily!) the SLIDE executable
  
• Python and XML book: helpful guide to using the SAX libraries in Python
  
• xmldiff: an app for comparing XML data without worrying about whitespace differences. Absolutely vital for testing this thing.
  
• XML Internationalization and Localization book: good resource on a surprisingly lightly-documented topic. The associated website, opentag.com is also very helpful.
  
• All of the input and help so far. Thank you, and keep it coming.