Re: XHTML 2.0 and Xlinks (again even more)

Hello dear list members, dear Lachlan Cannon,

Am Sonntag, 11. August 2002 13:40 schrieb Lachlan Cannon:
[6 points pro XLink in XHTML 2.0]

I want to add:
g) Consistency
SVG already is using xlink:href.



I absolutely agree with all people on this list that are pro XLink and join in their protest against XHTML 2.0 not using XLink!

I noticed this thread just today and didn't already have the time to follow the whole thread, I tried to pick up those postings that seemed most significant.
Currently I don't see any good reason why XHTML 2.0 should not use XLink.

This topic engages my attention for several hours now (on *sunday*!).
And, to be honest, I am quite angry because XHTML 2.0 breaks with efforts of other groups and breaks with consistency because of not using XLink.

Yes, I have read http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/XLink.html (linked in http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/ilist#xlinkScope-23):
<blockquote>
[...]
Three possible answers:

1. No, you don't have to unless there is some functionality of xlink which you would like to lever.
2. You should use xlink whenever your application is one of hypertext linking, as xlink functionality such as power to control user interface behavior on link traversal is useful and should be implemented in a standard way to allow interoperability.
3. You should always make an XLink whenever you make a reference with a URI, as all such references are in some way a link. 


The short answer in my humble opinion, is that (2) is right.
</blockquote>

So my question: is XHTML an application of hypertext linking or isn't it?
Okay, that's more one of the rhetorical sort.

As far as I know, the question wether to use or not to use XLink arose with XInclude more than a year before.
Or was it that Jonathan Marsh didn't want to use XLink for another reason, because a standard using XLink has been rejected by Tim Berners-Lee for using XLink?
Can't remember properly and couldn't find the thread.

Anyway, XInclude doesn't use XLink for a good reason.
XML Inclusion is neither done at parse level nor at application (presentation!) level but somewhere in between.
As far as I understand XLink it is intended for application and presentation level.
(With presentation level I mean the user is able to traverse the link, not the difference between logical and physical markup).

But for the same reason I think it is important that XHTML *uses* XLink.
It's simply missing a mechanism for rel/rev (or perhaps XLink has it, but it's not documented in a clear way, at least not to me).

I (and I think several authors will agree) request a clear, convenient way of hyperlinking throughout all application / presentation layer languages of the W3C.
I want the same way of linking in SVG, XHTML and all other languages using Hyperlinks, unless there's a really good reason not to do so.
And if there was a good reason for XHTML not to use XLink, this could only be due to lacks in XLink, couldn't it?
So what's to do then is to update XLink so XHTML 2.0 can use XLink.
Not to use XLink is the wrong way, I think!
Wasn't one of the intentions of XLink to replace HTML Hyperlinking in a way that's independent from HTML / useable in XML in general?
This implies (at least in my mind) that it *is* designed for XML in general and for HTML as well.


The requirements and specification of XLink are full of topics concerning HTML.
I think everyone that has read XLink requirements and XLink *must* expect future HTML versions to use XLink, especially after SVG already uses XLink.


Why not use it!

And since XLink wasn't just influenced by HTML, but also by HyTime and RDF, it would provide great power to XHTML.


Greetings
P.S.:
I hope I deleted all those "the hell" and "damned" before submitting this post ;-)
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Christian Wolfgang Hujer
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Received on Sunday, 11 August 2002 08:28:00 UTC