Tools of the Nuisance Part 1: XMLSpy
If you’re working with XML on Windows and you like your tool full-featured there’s a good chance that you have worked with Altova XMLSpy, a first of all very good and powerful XML editor but on second look becomes a nasty bugger that calls home as if there is no tomorrow.
Thats fine and good! Let them try it to call it home as long as they want, I can block it with my Firewall! It was noted by some other blogs that XMLSpy not only transfers data to check the legal ownership but also transfers private data that is none of Altova’s business, so there is good reason to block the spy (what a fitting name!) off!
But what if you want to use the Eclipse (or Visual Studio) XMLSpy PlugIn? If you block Java’s JRE, Eclipse also can’t connect to the web anymore. But fear not, there’s an easy solution. Here’s how to block off XMLSpy …
Go straight to your WINDOWS/system32/drivers/etc/ folder and add the following line to the host file:
127.255.255.255 link.altova.com
This redirects every access to link.altova.com to the local machine, thus blocking of connection attempts. With that you’re free to let Eclipse access the net while XMLSpy has to stay inside the system.
This is one of the many reasons I do not use XML Spy. I have been using XML Butterfly instead.
I recommend to developers that they do not use XML Spy. Besides it being a nasty piece of Spyware, it has an inconsistent interface, and poor responsiveness.
XML Butterfly site seems to be down ATM. I’d give it a try. The deal on XMSpy for me was the Datagrid style layout which made it very easy to enter data. Also the Eclipse integration is useful. But you’re right, otherwise it’s not the nicest piece of software.
Switched to Oxygen XML Editor PlugIn for Eclipse now! It is soo much better to use that one instead!