Re: 1.4 f: terms for links colocated with their ends

David Durand wrote:
> >So I hereby propose external annotations, which are participating and
> >external, and implicitly all point to the same XML file.
> 
> Nice. Do we need these enough to need to explain 3 distinctions instead of
> two? You can keep the destination file explicit, without duplication by
> using entities

I'm not sure.  SoftQuad Panorama has external annotations, but they
are explicit, not implicit, as I recall.  It's a ViewPort feature.

>    Personally I think implicit links to anything but the markup that
> declares a link are completely evil, as everyone has to understand the
> "implication" for them to be useful.

Well, maybe I am evil then.  I am barefooted and wearing black.
I think implicit link ends are like relative paths and partial URLS.

I introduced the three concepts (internal/participating/explicit) so
that we could try and grab control of the terminology issue.  I wanted
to try and be reasonably complete, even though it isn't clear that
XML will need all those distinctions.  It might later.

Lee

*

>    Of course, if you're just funnin' me for having insufficient link-type
> imagination, there's no reason to take this note seriously...

No.  I'd never do that.  Well, maybe I would, but I amn't.

A new terminology: links are like legs.
The linked region is the footprint.
The container of the address is a sock.
Hmm, no forget it.  XML can have 8-way links, and spiders don't wear socks.

OK, I've consulted my 1736 dictionary:

Link: part of a chain; also a Sausage, because made in that form.
Link: a torch of pitch.
To Link: to join or tie together.

Terminus -- not listed in the dictionary

Terminus Deus [among the Romans] the God of Bounds
and Limits.  The People of Rome were commanded to set
Stones on the Confines of their Ground, which were call'd
<I>Terminalia</I>; and upon them they offered to <I>Jupiter</I>, to
whom they were consecrated; these Stones were every Year
crowned with Flowers, and Milk was poured upon them to
the God <I>Terminus</I>.

The dict. does list Terminalia (a feast of land-marks), to terminate,
termination (the end of a word), terminer (a commission...), and

Termini censiales [old Records] Rent-Terms, the four quarterly
Festivals on which Rent is usually paid.

Also, Terminists, and Terminthus (which is very interesting but not
relevant to XML).

I haven't look'd in my Latin dictionary, Ainsworth's, which also dates
from the 18th C... nor in Johnson's, which is usually less fun.
Since all the modern dictionaries (at least the British ones) say
a terminus is a railway station, I think we should stick with
the railway analogy.  A multiway link is called a junction,
and a document with no other links is a siding.

But I still like the idea of pouring milk on all my links each year!

Lee

Received on Sunday, 9 February 1997 22:56:16 UTC