Can we not edit an XML file? It seems that users are getting more and more interested in having plugins and minu GUI applications for thier preferred framework, why is that? These plugins don't do much more then simple place a GUI onto of a XML file. Just last week some guy created a XWork editor for WebWork2, http://blog.xesoft.com/jon.lipsky/blog/Java/?permalink=xwork_definition_editor.html. Was that really needed?
I would agree with you, on principle, that you shouldn't need a special editor/plugin for configuring a web app. We've tried to keep our config files simple enough to look at and understand quickly and be able to edit by hand. This is one of the big reasons for having a DTD that allows you to have smart editors that will tell you what you can put where.
However, the XWork editor Jon put together is pretty slick looking and it does a lot for public perception of a project like Xwork / WebWork2 to have tool support. The same goes for books on the topic. Sure, hardcore developers can get WW2 and be up and running in 20 minutes, but less experienced people, who might not even be familiar with MVC, will need a little more guidance and it's helpful to put it all together in one place.
Rest assured we're going to keep the config file formats simple enough to be edited by hand, and we've made some big strides in the last month in making it much less verbose, which will help people editing by hand. I think one of my main problems with a lot of frameworks is that they depend on tool support and can't be reasonably managed by hand. I think JSF will be the poster-boy for this problem, and will be unusable without a GUI tool. Time will tell, but I like editing my config files by hand, so they'll stay simple for users who want to do that, even if it makes it more complex for tool implementers :-)
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