Re: Arch Doc: New section on embedding links in representations

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

/ "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com> was heard to say:
| "Simple, single-ended, single-direction, inline links are not the most
| powerful linking paradigm imaginable. But they are very easy to
| understand. And they can be authored by individuals (or other agents)
| that have no control or even access to the other end point."
|
| The problem here is the statement is not true 
| of the example presented.  In what context 
| is it true that the author of <a href="#foo" > 
| does not control or have access to <a name="foo">?

Well, writing the link requires no control over the endpoint. If,
however, the author of the endpoint didn't provide any anchors, that
is a bit of a problem. For XML, it's a problem that can be addressed
with the XPointer Element scheme.

And I suppose "even access" is overstated, I meant "write access" and
I should have said so.

| In the case where no access or control is enabled, 
| a simple inline link won't work.  A system that 
| has a notion of document type (or NOTATION) and 
| of a standard protocol for passing an identifier 
| in a form which the handler for that type can 
| interpret is needed.  Hyperlinking to external  
| sources requires more than the hyperlink itself. 
| Thus HTTP, MIME, etc.  HyTime went a bit further 
| and described all of the classes of representation 
| of an address by the nature of it's resolver (thus, 
| an address by named location, offset, and so on).
|
| So the example is short on the understanding that 
| a lot of *machinery* for want of a better term is 
| hiding the mappings.  That is the reason for the 
| success, not the named location representation itself.
|
| I know you know that, but the text is oversimplified. 
| Is that what is wanted here?

I was trying to balance the full complexity of link traversal with the
relative simplicity (and power) of providing linking elements in
representations.

I'll revise it some and repost it shortly.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

- -- 
Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM    | Everything we love, no doubt, will pass away,
XML Standards Architect | perhaps tomorrow, perhaps a thousand years
Web Tech. and Standards | hence. Neither it nor our love for it is any
Sun Microsystems, Inc.  | the less valuable for that reason.--John
                        | Passmore
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.7 <http://mailcrypt.sourceforge.net/>

iD8DBQE+9yrTOyltUcwYWjsRAusIAJ9/rlXP8wRR9E+sLvkq+KzdQIJ9jwCfZL/s
DETgT9+f9x0ZlINpNPL7FCM=
=Ugkq
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Received on Monday, 23 June 2003 12:29:27 UTC