Finally, XMetaL on Linux!

Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator, the open-source Windows environment available for Linux) is nearing 1.0, after some 12 years (or is it 13?) of development. The current Debian version is 0.9.7, and it's actually pretty darn good. So good, in fact, that I decided to try installing XMetaL again. The avid reader of this blog might remember my last tirade about the sorry state of XML editors available for Linux, when all my attempts at installing XMetaL had been unsuccessful and I was losing hope.

But I tried again today, optimistic as ever, and here's the result:

Pretty cool, huh? It's XMetaL 3.1, running peacefully on my Debian box. It's not perfect yet, not by a long shot, but it runs!

Here's what to do (and mind you, I'm not going to list the trivialities of installing Wine or its helper apps, you'll have to do that part yourself):

1. Set Wine to Win98 mode. It's the easiest mode, by far.
2. Install Internet Explorer 6 SP1 by following the instructions at Frank's Corner. The DLL overrides are important; don't forget them!
3. Install Microsoft Active X Control Pad. It's available as a download from Microsoft, but it's also on the XMetaL CD.
   
4. Install Windows Scripting Host 5.6 from the XMetaL CD. This went like a charm, BTW, in stark contrast to my attempts using earlier versions of Wine. I don't know why it's that difficult; others have installed WSH before on older Wine versions...
5. Then install MDAC from the XMetaL CD. Use a version no newer than 2.1, if you use another source.
6. Install XMetaL using Custom options. Do not forget Templates and Samples. The XMetaL installation might complain about WSH missing; in that case, reinstall it after completing the XMetaL installation.

This should be all. In other words, it worked for me. There are some weird bugs, though (if you try this, and figure out why the weirdness is happening, contact me):

• If you choose Tools->Options, you mess up your KDE taskbar, for some strange reason. Change any settings using the configuration file in the XM directory instead.
• Customized toolbars do not always work. I suspect there are things in WSH not recognized by Wine, as of yet.
• In a similar manner, some Insert Elements events will not work, probably because WSH is doing something weird.

Obviously, I'm not going to offer any support on this, even though I will most likely respond to a polite query. And I'm not, repeat, not, responsible for any damage you might cause to your computer when following the above instructions.

It certainly looks like I finally have a decent XML editor for Linux, though. I'm going to tinker with Wine/XMetaL for a while, and post any success stories here.