Dependency of XPointers upon DTD

I'd like to point out the level of dependency of the current XPointers
CR on DTDs which IMHO should be neutral to the schema system used.

The XPointers CR makes an intensive (non normative) usage of DTDs as
examples of a way to simplify the authoring of documents using XLink
attributes through implied values.

Couldn't some examples using XML Schemas be provided as well to show
that alternative usages are possible ?

There is another more pernicious usage of DTDs.

My understanding is that the "bare names" scheme [1] relies on the XPath
unique IDs [2] which themselves relies on DTD's ID typed attributes.

This scheme, being the easiest to write and more robust scheme will
probably be widely used and I wonder if it's not dangerous to rely on
DTDs which present well know limitations especially with the namespaces
which usage is mandatory with XLink.

This scheme relies on a unique ID mechanism which is also implemented in
XML Schemas [3].

Is it possible to add amongst the XPointers extensions to XPath that a
XML Schemas ID should play the same role ?

Best regards,

Eric

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xptr#bare-names
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath#unique-id
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-xmlschema-2-20000407/#ID
-- 
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Eric van der Vlist       Dyomedea                    http://dyomedea.com
http://xmlfr.org         http://4xt.org              http://ducotede.com
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Received on Friday, 1 September 2000 09:59:44 UTC