RE: xlxp-dev: Resources or local resources?

Elliotte,

The following is personal feedback only and does not represent the W3C XML
Link WG's opinion in any way.

Interesting feedback.  The XML Link WG debated this issue for quite some
time.  I was a champion of the current naming scheme.  The particular reason
that I like the term resource is because of the connection between
resources, locators and Uniform Resource Locators.  The goal of an arc is to
connect resources together.  Locator elements and URL attributes are simply
references to resources.  I very much like the notion of locator elements
containing URLs attributes when the resource is remote, and a resource
elements when the resource is local.

So a local resource can be referenced directly without the intermediary
"handle" that we have encoded as a locator - effectively a pointer.  Or
resources can be referenced indirectly through a locator.  Note that local
resources could be treated as remote through the use of a locator element to
the resource element!  We simply gave a shortcut to that common case.

Personally, I am very pleased with the current use of resource and locator
elements.

Cheers,
Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: xlxp-dev-request@fs.fujitsu.com
[mailto:xlxp-dev-request@fs.fujitsu.com]On Behalf Of Elliotte Rusty
Harold
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 10:08 AM
To: www-xml-linking-comments@w3.org; xlxp-dev@fsc.fujitsu.com
Subject: xlxp-dev: Resources or local resources?


I'm concerned that some of the terminology in the XLink CR is a little
inconsistent and unnecessarily confusing. In particular, it bothers me
that a resource type element only refers to local resources whereas a
locator element refers to remote resources.

For example, consider this paragraph from a chapter I'm working on about
the latest version of XLink:

A resource element can and generally does have the same attributes as a
locator element; that is, xlink:label, xlink:role, and xlink:title.
These all have the same semantics as they do for locator elements. For
instance, the label can be used so arcs can connect to and from
resources. An arc can connect a resource to a resource, a resource to a
locator, a locator to a resource, or a locator to a locator. Arcs really
don't care whether resources are local or remote.

Actually all arcs connects rtesources to resources. I think that's less
clear than this:

A local element can and generally does have the same attributes as a
locator element; that is, xlink:label, xlink:role, and xlink:title.
These all have the same semantics as they do for locator elements. For
instance, the label can be used so arcs can connect to and from local
elements. An arc can connect a local to a local, a local to a locator, a
locator to a local, or a locator to a locator. Arcs really don't care
whether resources are local or remote.

What I'm proposing is to rename the type of the local resource from
resource to something else such as "local". The reason is that a
resource element doesn't really represent all kinds of resources, just
local ones. I'm not wedded to the name "local". I just don't want it to
be "resource".

Another possibility is to rename the resource type to local and the
locator type to remote, though I suppose that might be a little
confusing when the locator locates an element in the same document. Or
we could rename locator "uri" and resource "here". That more clearly
indicates what's expected in the attribute value.

--
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|               Java I/O (O'Reilly & Associates, 1999)               |
|            http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/books/javaio/            |
|   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1565924851/cafeaulaitA/   |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
|  Read Cafe au Lait for Java News:  http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/ |
|  Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/     |
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Received on Friday, 14 July 2000 12:31:40 UTC