Substantive: XHTML 2 duplicate functionality

I'm glad that xml:id has been added, but I wonder why id has been 
retained? It seems like needless duplication that can only serve to 
confuse. I would prefer to just stick with one or the other, preferably 
xml:id. This would make queries to find the IDs of an element much 
simpler in, for example, XPath.

For similar reasons, i question the retention of the now redundant a 
element. It's just additional baggage for the spec and parsers. Simpler 
is better. Any element you can take out, you should take out.

On the other hand, I do wish href were replaced with xlink:href. Using 
XLink 1.1 and xml:id would remove the need for HTML specific link and ID 
handling. It would make processing XHTML documents that much simpler.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/

Received on Saturday, 29 July 2006 15:07:34 UTC