Re: ERB call on addressing

Matthew Fuchs <matt@wdi.disney.com> wrote:

> It seems to me the essential question is, if I have separate URLs
> for each chapter, then they can refer to each other, but if I have
> one URL for the book, and retrieve each chapter as a query, then any
> cross references require returning to the server, because each cross
> reference is a query.

If you download the whole book, you don't need to go back to the
server tofind fragments.

If you only download a fragment, the fragmenter can change links
in the document so that they point to the correct fragment.

There is nothing but a URL.  Every URL is a query -- it's just that
sometimes the remote server answers the query by sending a disk file.
A URL like http://www.softquad.com/sgml/ might be sending back a file
called index.html or default.htm or it might be looking in a database,
but you (the client) can't tell.

> So we want a syntax that says "give me piece X
> of document Y".

You already have it.

	http://server/documentY/partX
might do this, if the server is so set up.  Jon Bosak has illustrated
the use of this syntax for us already, has a working server that does it,
and did not need anything special at the server end.


> Current practice, as I understand, would require downloading the
> entire book and using # for cross references.

This is not the case.

Lee

Received on Thursday, 27 March 1997 14:26:44 UTC