Re: [xml-dev] So maybe ID isn't a problem after all.

[David Carlisle <davidc@nag.co.uk>]

> OK. How about changing it to
> 
>   foo.xml#id='bar' 
>
> or
> 
>   foo.xml#myid='bar'

If you are going to have a specific syntax for XMl you probably may as
well go straight to something as general as xpointer.

the advantage of foo.xml#bar over either of the above is that the #bar
fragment id syntax is supported by a range of mime types.

the meaning of the stuff after the # depends on the mime type of
the entity returned, and that might depend on who's asking.

The uri might be 
http://www.example.com/foo.xml#bar
but if the server there decides that my client won't like xml and
decides to do a sever side xslt/fop transform and send me some pdf
then the #bar still makes sense


similarly if it sends some text/html then #bar means what it means in
html. Of course, if the transform hasn't arranged that there is an
anchor with name or id bar in the generated html then it won't select
anything, but at least with this syntax you have a chance of making it
work. 

If the fragment id is in a syntax specific to XML then it only works
if you know XML is going to be sent. Using xpointer is more verbose than
using #bar but it's XML we're not supposed to care about verbosity...

David

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