Re: xml:* attributes

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 5:55 AM, Rushforth, Peter <
Peter.Rushforth@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca> wrote:

> **
> Sorry, pulled the trigger by accident!
>
>
> Any spec that requires a transformation to be useful is too complex.  That
> said, I have only recently started to read up on AF.
>
> But if you have to even so much as squint your eyes to think about what a
> piece of markup might mean, it is getting too complex.  Now @xml:* might
> appear complexer than just @*, but not by too much.  And there's no
> declaration required, so cut and paste and probably lots of other things
> "just work".  I know I personally am hoping for hypermedia someday, but
> whatever.  Even Atom uses xml:base after all.  It can't be that bad.
>

I don't think anyone is saying xml:base is bad.  James Clark gave a long
list that I think covers the reasoning for omitting xml:* attributes, and
none of the reasoning is so crude. Anyway even if you allow xml:base
attributes you'd still need something like AF for hypermedia, since xlink:*
would be prohibited under the options that have gained any serious traction.

As for AF itself, yes the way it was expressed and modeled in the SGML days
was complex, but the underlying concept is simple, and that's all we want
for MicroAF. You're simply transforming the content model actually used in
a vocabulary to a reference one, a form, which, for example expresses link,
id, base, etc.  This doesn't have to be an explicit transform. It's barely
more than normal schema documentation. After all, before you use even a
<span> tag in HTML, you have to learn what that tag means.  MicroAF would
really just be a thin layer on top of regular schema documentation, and it
doesn't even have to be an explicit layer.  View source, follow-your-nose,
etc. would all still work fine.


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