Do you memorize the tags in your XML configuration?

Question

1. Do you guys memorize the tags in your XML configurations particularly in Java?
2. Do you guys memorize the tags in web.xml, in your Ant configuration files, in your Spring configuration files?
3. Also do you code them by hand or do you have an IDE and a reference with you?

I'm a noob wanting to know how the pros do it :)

Answer 1

Personally, I'd go get an editor w/ schema support and rely on intellisense. I guess I'm just being lazy :). On the other hand, why would I want to remember all those angle brackets on top of my head, hehehe. Make your already hard life easier I say. Work smart, not harder. If tool can do this for you, use it. If not, well... no choice right?

Answer 2

Nope. I pretty much just hit ctrl-space in Eclipse. :)

The exception being Spring, where I have something like 5 tags to remember - beans, bean property, ...

Answer 3

I tend to remember the most common cases, and look up the remainder via manuals...

I tend not to use IDEs which remember stuff for me, and much prefer to use vim or other fancy text editors for development. This approach isn't for everyone, but after many years of programming in a dozen different languages/tools, (up to half a dozen simulaneously sometimes!) I find it works for me.

Answer 4

Most important/used tags will be memorized by daily usage. Meanwhile I rely in my favourite Ide's autocompletion or product documentation to acomplish this. My memory has limited space :-)

Answer 5

Although I don't remember them all, it is important to know them and what they exactly do. I think you have to understand a XML configuration file without the help of an IDE.

Working with a XML skeleton which is passed from project to project, without understanding it all, can be dangerous when you got problem.