XLink and OLink in Docbook 5

XLink hasn't been discussed here since mid 2002, so I'd like to bring up the subject. XLink has been scheduled for inclusion into Docbook since 2001, so no-one should be surprised. On the other hand, most people have limited experience with XLink.

We're considering up-translating some legacy content with lots of external links and cross-references to Docbook. We've been using olink for maintaining external links, so I'd like to get an idea about what to expect from Docbook V5.0. Can I re-implement the existing targetdoc#targetptr semantics of olink with xlink?

We seriously want to use extended links, i.e., external linkbases. In 2001, XLink looked like a promissing technology, but since then, most of the XLink processors have disappeared. Anyone out there using extended XLinks today?

kind regards
Peter Ring