PADManager : Java Glossary

Advantages

• You edit by filling in fields in a collapsible tree.
• It is the most professional/serious PAD editor I have used.
• It has no overall documentation, but it does have useful information on each field you must enter. It is fairly easy to figure out.
• The editor supports a number of PAD extensions directly, but not PADmap or PADRING. When you import your PAD files, it maintains the PADmap when you export again, but it discards the PADRING extension. I presume this is because PADRING does not use 100% kosher XML (extensible Markup Language). You will have to write a program to reinsert the PADRING data in the exported XML. Program_Categories give you a place to specify various proprietary categories so that Robosoft can make a match with sites that demand a proprietary category. Backlink gives you place to specify your back link page for sites that require a link back to them.

Disadvantages

• The main drawback is it supports deprecated field values, such as NT 3.0 for Program_OS_Support, which will not pass ASP (Association of Shareware Professionals) verification.
• It does not generate HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) summaries. You must do that yourself by parsing the exported XML and generate the HTML.
• It stores some data in C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\PADManager\ and C:\ProgramData\PADManager\rsdb. The internal copy of the company and product is stored in an inscrutable binary format, so you can’t modify it directly behind PADManager’s back. You have to export and reimport. If you have RoboSoft installed, PADManager shares company and PAD data with it in C:\ProgramData\Robosoft\rsdb.