Re: Comments on XML-Link Spec

At 5:28 PM +0000 5/20/97, Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
>I think there is confusion in the use of the wors LINK.  An EXTENDED
>element is not a link per se, but a LINK-CONTAINER.  It can contain 0-N
>LOCATORs.  In the special cases:
>	0 represents a null link
>	1 is essentially a simple link (its 'anchor' being at the position
>		of the tree/stream within the EXTENDED element (otherwise
>		where is it positioned?

This is the kind of link you can use to represent external markup. A
1-ended link is an assertion that the link body is relevant to the data
selected. The user-added atributes on the link may control a stylesheet or
retrieval process.

>	2 represents two links.  These might either form a 'double arrow'
>		or be two independent links starting from the position
>		in 'EXTENDED'.  If the implication is that there is a
>		reciprocity, it's not spelt out.
I thought that an "EXTENDED" was never contextual...

>	3 can only reasonably be a trident-shaped link?
>	and N likewise.

Sure, could be a pop-up menu of endpoints, could be an annotated
correspondence between two locations -- depends on your style sheet's
rendering for that _particular_ kind of link.


><P ID="one">
>This is para one
></P>
><P ID="two">
>and this is para two.
></P>
><LINKSET XML-LINK="EXTENDED">
>This linkset has two ends
><LINK XML-LINK="LOCATOR" HREF="#one">
><LINK XML-LINK="LOCATOR" HREF="#two">
></LINKSET>
>
>Now - I assume that the intention of the authors is that if I'm sitting on
>"one" and click it it jumps to "two" and if I'm sitting on "two" it jumps t
>one.  That's not what JUMBO does, and I suspect it's wrong.  [JUMBO treats
>the links as a multi (bi-) headed arrow.  If XML-LINK was ACTUATE="AUTO"
>it would immediately traverse to both and (say) light them up.

I would think this is wrong.

>
>If JUMBO is wrong, and I suspect it is, then I would find it difficult to
>see how there could be less than two LOCATORs in LINKSET.  I can see how there
>could be more than 2 - this represents a complete graph for N components,
>although I don't see that traversal is a meaningful activity here.

Many meaningful kinds of traversal come to mind: pop up a menu of possible
desintations; make a simultaneous display of several destinations; choose
one destination randomly and go there; etc... See your local stylesheet for
details.

  -- David

_________________________________________
David Durand              dgd@cs.bu.edu  \  david@dynamicDiagrams.com
Boston University Computer Science        \  Sr. Analyst
http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/   \  Dynamic Diagrams
--------------------------------------------\  http://dynamicDiagrams.com/
MAPA: mapping for the WWW                    \__________________________

Received on Wednesday, 21 May 1997 15:53:53 UTC