Re: 3.2.b Locators in attributes or elements?

At 12:59 PM -0500 2/21/97, Steven J. DeRose wrote:
>>>  3.2.b Should the locators of a general link be packaged in attributes
>>>  as in HyTime, or as child elements as in the initial draft?

My feeling is no, we should use attributes. Now to comment on Steve's
answer, because it may illumuninate my own.

>At 03:05 PM 02/21/97 GMT, Henry S. Thompson wrote:
>>
>>I liked the child elements approach, especially as that means many
>>(most) of the attributes in each locator sub-element will be the same
>>as ones in in-line link elements (or whatever they are to be called).
>
>There is one syntactic advantage i see to the element approach: It provides
>a way to attach additional information to each linkend. If, for example, the
>user wants to add an explainer^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H label to each linkend,
>it's a lot cleaner to do it with subelements:
>
><LINK-MONO TYPE=COMPARISON>
>   <LINKEND ROLE=AUTHOR
>            HREF="http://www.ebt.com//u/sjd/bio.htm">
>   <LINKEND ROLE=TEXT1
>            HREF="http://lit.org//milton/paradise_lost.htm#27966"
>            LABEL="In this passage Milton clearly alludes to D. Steele.">
>   <LINKEND ROLE=TEXT2
>            HREF="http://lit.org//dsteele/yet_another.htm"
>            LABEL="See, they both talk about people.">
></LINK-MONO>
>
>Try combining them LABELs into one element! Obviously doable by introducing
>internal syntax (prohibit semicolon or something and pack 'em up). But ugly.

I agree that this syntax is better for explainers, but it's less-compatible
with the "new" HyTime as I understand it, and it means that we have to talk
about content models which I would like to leave completely open to the
user.

So, although I love explainers (Labels), and have spent years arguing that
they should be supported by Hypertext systems, I'd rather lose them and
keep the syntax simpler and more flexible.

It will also keep our Mini-AF description much shorter and more
understandable, as all we need to specify are attributes, and we don't even
need to raise the confusing questions of what meta-content models mean and
require.

  -- David "Explainer Apostate" Durand

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Received on Friday, 21 February 1997 14:53:55 UTC