Future feature needed: Distinguishing ref types

The issue about the use of ref for output/mediatype reminded me that, as 
Erik's intuition is suggesting, we need to do a better job of identifying 
different "types" of refs.

When we use a  ref attribute, 

1) Sometimes we want MIPs and UI events (form controls), and sometimes we 
don't (actions, metadata elements)

2) Sometimes we want to read a node only, sometimes we want to write it 
only, and sometimes we want both.

3) Sometimes we want the node content to be restricted to string content 
(UI bindings setvalue action), sometimes we want to address the entire 
subtree rooted by the node (submission).

The last point is really one that will become more important for us in 
future features because it seems like we might eventually want "subforms" 
that can bind to and process an entire subtree of data as a unit.  Right 
now the submission ref only reads a subtree, but here is a case where a UI 
binding might reasonably want read/write access to a subtree.

John M. Boyer, Ph.D.
STSM: Lotus Forms Architect and Researcher
Chair, W3C Forms Working Group
Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software
IBM Victoria Software Lab
E-Mail: boyerj@ca.ibm.com 

Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/JohnBoyer