Re: FW: [xml-dev] Groves (was re: bunch of other stuff...)

["Steven R. Newcomb" <srn@coolheads.com>]

"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com> writes:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe English [mailto:jenglish@flightlab.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 8:15 PM
> To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Groves (was re: bunch of other stuff...)

...

> The most interesting one is the "named node list"
> type: it's a node list with the extra condition that
> each member of the list has a name property which
> distinguishes it from the other members of the list.
> (This is used to model the 'attributes' property of
> 'element' nodes, for example).

There are two kinds of named node lists, and one of
them, which Joe didn't emphasize, is the key to
reflexive referencing (aka "back links") in hypermedia.

The one Joe emphasized is the "string-named node list".
As Joe indicated, this one is simply a namespace, where
"namespace" is defined as "a room in which, when you
utter a name, either you get the only node in the room
that has that name, or you get a message saying,
"Nothing in the room has that string as its name."

The other one is the key to back-links in hypermedia.
It's called "node-named node list".  It, too, is a
namespace, but the names of the nodes are not strings;
they are nodes.  You walk into the room, utter a node,
and you get the only node in the room that has that
node as its "name".  Every hyperdocument grove has such
node-named node lists, which are used to find out which
nodes in which groves (within the "bounded object set"
[BOS] of groves that comprise the hyperdocument) refer
to any given node in any given grove, from the
perspective of the referenced node.

Some relevant words from the ISO 10744 standard:

  Note that in effect, there are two varieties of named
  node list, "string-named" and "node-named". In the
  first, each node is identified by a string; in the
  second, each node is identified by another node.
  Collecting all the values of the "name" property of
  the nodes in a string-named node list yields a list
  of names that are unique within the list. Similarly,
  collecting all the values of the name properties of
  the nodes in a node-named node list yields a list of
  nodes that are unique within the list.


-- Steve

Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant
srn@coolheads.com

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