Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
In computing, the term Extensible Stylesheet Language is used to refer to a family oflanguages used to transform and render XML documents....
, and other structured code formats. The project was created by Sergey Chikuyonok in 2009 and continues to be actively developed by Chikuyonok and Zen Coding users. The tools have been incorporated into a number of high-profile text editor
Text editor
A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
s, some plug-ins developed by the Zen Coding team and others implemented independently. However, Zen Coding is primarily independent from any text editor, as the engine works directly with text rather than with any particular software.
Zen Coding is an open source code distributed under an MIT License
MIT License
The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . It is a permissive license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software provided all copies of the licensed software include a copy of the MIT License terms...
.
Expand abbreviations
Zen Coding uses a specific syntax in order to expand small snippets of code, similar to CSS selectors, into full-fledged HTML code. For example, the sequence
div#page>div.logo+ul#navigation>li*5>a
expands into
The expand abbreviations function includes several other complex functions, such as wrapping a section of code with expanded code.
Tag balancing
The HTML Pair Matcher allows users to locate the matching open/close tag for the tag at the current cursor position. Unlike other HTML pair matchers, Zen Coding searches from the cursors current position rather than scanning the document from the beginning.
Text editors
The following text editor plug-ins were developed by the Zen Coding team
TextMate is a general-purpose GUI text editor for Mac OS X created by Allan Odgaard. Popular with programmers, some notable features include declarative customizations, tabs for open documents, recordable macros, folding sections and snippets, shell integration, and an extensible bundle...
Coda is a commercial and proprietary web development application for Mac OS X, developed by Panic. It was released on April 23, 2007. It won the 2007 Apple Design Award for Best User Experience. It is available for $99. - Concept and idea :...
Komodo Edit is a highly regarded free text editor for dynamic programming languages. Introduced in January 2007, with the release of version 4.3, Komodo Edit is built on top of the Open Komodo project...
Notepad++ is a text editor and source code editor for Windows. One advantage of Notepad++ over the built-in Windows text editor, Notepad, is tabbed editing, which allows working with multiple open files.Notepad++ is distributed as free software...
PSPad editor is a freeware text editor and source editor intended for use by programmers. First released in 2001, this software is produced by the single Czech developer Jan Fiala for the Windows platform....
