TPAC topic: XInclude @xpointer when parse="text"

Norm sent email at
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xml-core-wg/2011Sep/0011
saying that the existence of RFC 5147 makes the constraint that
@xpointer must not be present when parse="text" inappropriate.  
He suggests we remove that constraint.

But when parse="text", the resource is not (treated as) XML, 
so what would it mean to address into it via an xpointer?

We could add a "fragid" attribute to xinclude that is only
valid to set when parse="text".  Given the currently defined
fragment id RFCs, that would presumably mean the only valid
value for the fragid attribute would be something complying
with RFC 5147.

Norm also suggested that someone should try to register a text() 
XPointer scheme that implements RFC 5147.

But it couldn't be an xpointer scheme because it doesn't work on
XML.  Yet it seems so useful.  So we need to discuss this more.

Paul and Liam note that one can use the xpath() scheme to address 
first a particular node and then (via, e.g., the xpath substring 
function) particular characters within that node.  Paul thinks 
that is more useful in most cases than the 5147 fragment identifier 
that just treats the entire file as a big text node (though this 
doesn't give you access to "lines" like 5147 does).

Received on Monday, 24 October 2011 16:57:42 UTC