RE: [xml-dev] Re: determining ID-ness in XML

["Champion, Mike" <Mike.Champion@SoftwareAG-USA.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Leigh Dodds [mailto:ldodds@ingenta.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 7:32 AM
> To: Elliotte Rusty Harold; xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Re: determining ID-ness in XML

 
> If what we're really talking about is an omission from XPointer
> (xml:target, or similar) then "gaping architectural hole" seems an
> exaggeration. After all it's a fix to one spec, and we've been
> round that one before.

It's not just one spec, id-ness is exposed to users of XPath, XPointer,
XSLT, XLink, and DOM.  More importantly, it's a widely used feature in real
applications that use these specs, especially when an XML app is working
with a database.  I use "getElementById()" whenever I can (e.g., I control
the XHTML and can put in the necessary attributes). 

I agree with Tim Bray: this is a "gaping architectural hole" because these
other specs don't require DTDs or schemas in the general case, and have to
mumble to describe what is supposed to happen if there isn't a DTD/Schema to
define id-ness. None care (at their core) about the other features that
DTD/Schema brings to the table, they just need a way to define id-ness. Not
providing an agreed-upon means of defining id-ness without a DTD/schema
doesn't force everyone to "do the right thing," it simply means that people
kludge around the problem with application-specific magic attributes or
namespaces.