[
Lists Home |
Date Index |
Thread Index
]
It seems from all the various
postings on XLink/HLink, et cetera, that one of the real problems of XML 1.X is
a missing data type, the pointer. If the various attributes could have
been declared as:
<!ATTLIST
img
src PTR #REQUIRED
<!ATTLIST
a
href PTR #IMPLIED
Then we would have had a way to
identify links [anything with the type PTR], regardless of the name of the
attribute. So if want to correct the HLink/XLink fiasco, why not add a
type of attributes that indicates that it is a pointer. We might event use
the notation mechanism so that there can be a way to identify validation
constraints on pointers, without requiring predeclaration of every pointer in an
external entity:
Thus:
<!NOTATION URI PUBLIC
"some agreed upon string for href-style URIs" >
<!NOTATION XPointer PUBLIC
"some agreed upon string for XPointer URIs" >
Would declare "Attribute
types"
which could then be used
like:
<!ATTLIST
a
href
NOTATION XPointer
#IMPLIED
>
<!ATTLIST
img
src NOTATION URI
#IMPLIED
>
So anyway, if we [as Tonto once
said -- We who, Kimosabe?] end up refactoring XML, I think that something like
this should be considered. It seems to eliminate a lot of the trouble
posed by links today, without a lot of new syntax, and no colons necessary [for
those Averse Religiously to such devices].
Keith
Engineering is what
happens when science and
mathematics meet politics. Products are
what
happens when all three meet
reality.
| 