Re: [xml-dev] Xlink Isn't Dead

[peter murray-rust <pm286@cam.ac.uk>]

At 23:03 24/09/2006, Ben Trafford wrote:

>At 02:12 PM 9/24/2006, peter murray-rust wrote:
>>I may be old-fashioned but I would prefer an XML spec for links to 
>>RDF. That is not to say I don't use RDF but it is rather too 
>>flexible for me. I would like a link which can be strongly typed.
>
>         Please define what you mean by "strongly typed."

Here is how I use links in CML:
  <map>
   <link role="atom atom" from="sr2:a10" to="sp2:a14" />
   <link role="atom atom" from="sr2:a9" to="sp2:a13" />
   <link role="atom atom" from="sr2:a20" to="sp2:a22" />
   <link role="atom atom" from="sr2:a11" to="sp2:a15" />
   <link role="atom atom" from="r1:a19" to="p2:a19" />
   <link role="bond bond" from="r2:b2" to="p1:b6" />
   <link role="bond bond" from="r2:b1" to="p1:b2" />
</map>

The role attribute indicates the element type of the from and the 
type of the to. If the object pointed to is not of the correct type 
the s/w can throw an exception. These are semantic links in that they 
show the equivalence of atoms in different elements/objects.


>         Well, I'm still hearing two camps: 1) The people who want 
> to render links, and 2) the people who want to do interesting 
> semantic things with links.
>
>         I rather suspect my work's going to appeal to Camp 1, and 
> probably not so much to Camp 2, from whom I'll need a lot of input 
> to do smart things.

Conceptually I regard Camp 2 as a series of bidirectional typed 
pointers. That may be simplistic but it is what I want.
  In principle a link may be multi ended - that can be kludged with 
multiple links.

I applaud what the GML people have done - I wish chemists were as far forward!

P.


>--->Ben
>
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Peter Murray-Rust
Unilever Centre for Molecular Sciences Informatics
University of Cambridge,
Lensfield Road,  Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069