Re: Using XPointer with HTML

Well, it depends what you want to do with the XHTML. Many people want stuff
that renders in a browser, and XHTML written according to the compatibility
guidelines can render in Lynx, Amaya, Mozilla beta (supports SVG plugin on
Mac OS, although when it gets out of beta it is expected to support it
natively), IE on various platforms, iCab, etc.

(If you means correctly parses it according to spec that's different. But as
far as I know there is almost nothing that does so with HTML either - one
SGML parser and CSS solution is claimed to have done so.)

The problem is that there isn't any very well defined way to point to
arbitrary parts of HTML, and particularly for invalid HTML. Another
alternative would be to use ed/vi syntax to get references into the source
code, which can include doing searches to find things, if anyone can be
bothered building a powerful enough engine for making references that are
stable (searching for elements based on id attribute where available, etc...

I wasn't intending to provide the one true answer. The point is that a
specified answer that can be reproduced by other developers is what is really
required, and one that can be readily converted to others, especially to
those designed for XML (assuming people believe that XML will represent more
content in the future), would be better.

cheers

Chaals


On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Jim Ley wrote:

  "Charles McCathieNevile" <charles@w3.org>

  > Cool. I take Jim's point that this is not exactly a quick way to
  resolve the
  > problem - but the basic problem is that people are using old systems
  when
  > there are new ones available which work for almost all the
  applications, and
  > work better. Getting people to upgrade is really a slow solution, so
  pointing
  > out why some things run extra slow when people are waiting might help a
  bit.

  There are systems which actually understand XHTML? I assume you're
  talking about the broken support in Mozilla, a beta browser which is not
  accessible to me, and my needs aren't particularly demanding (and doesn't
  support the SVG plugin...)

  > "Please be patient while we are checking the server to deal with your
  HTML
  > code. Did you know that you could do the same things with XHTML and
  avoid
  > making your clients wait for this service? Have a look at
  > http://example.org/how-to-make-good-code"

  That would be a simple lie, There are very few people on the web using
  clients that understand XHTML, and there are none which even claim to
  that are available for 2 of my platforms.

  Jim.


-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI  fax: +33 4 92 38 78 22
Location: 21 Mitchell street FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia
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Received on Wednesday, 10 April 2002 15:18:06 UTC