Re: Initial draft of XML-Link spec now available

At 09:38 27/1/97 -0800, Tim Bray wrote:

>1. Don't Panic

There's absolutely no need to - its a superb first draft.

The following comments are just some points that struck me on the initial
read through. 

Is there any reason why the model for -XML-MLINK is restricted to PCDATA and
-XML-END elements? Would it be more suitable to say something like
ANY +(-XML-END) -(XML-MLINK|-XML-ALINK)
or would this be too all encompassing?
Is there a case for making at least one -XML-END compulsory?

Again the restriction of links end data to just PCDATA may be restrictive.
(I have a particular case in mind, which came up yeseterday, where I want
italics to emphasis part of the link end text.

Same applies to  -XML-ALINK, which currently would not be sufficient to
mimic the HTML <A> element.

LOCSRC cannot currently be defined be pointing to HyTime addresses, or to
anything else that I can see a way of creating a location ladder from. Does
this mean that the phrase "may be a complex chain of relative pointers" in
the description of locators only refers to TEI relative queries? 

Why is * used in the model of -XML-XLG rather than +? Under what conditions
can the -XML-XLD information be omitted?

What is the reason for the hyphen after XHL in the attribute name? (XHL-=XLG
looks wierd!)

In general section 5 needs rewriting. (If I can get to grips with what it is
trying to say I'll take a stab at this next week if no-one else has done so
in the meantime.)
----
Martin Bryan, The SGML Centre, Churchdown, Glos. GL3 2PU, UK 
Phone/Fax: +44 1452 714029   WWW home page: http://www.u-net.com/~sgml/

Received on Tuesday, 28 January 1997 04:53:40 UTC