Introductory comments: XLink CR03062000

Hello,

I would like to share with you some of the thoughts I had when I read the
XLink spec. As I am not an hypertext expert, I guess many of the questions
that were new to me have already been discussed. But since I didn't find
them here, I will post them all the same - apologies for maybe stating the
obvious.

In this posting I would like to address problems directly related to the
spec:


In section 2.2 there is an unusual use of the [Definition: ...] syntax,
the "starting resource" is not defined in the brackets but in the preceding
sentence.

In section 2.3 inline, outline and third-party links are defined as linky
with only one arc. Links with more than one arc (let's call them complex
links
here) aren't given a name. This doesn't make sense to me as I thought one of
the great things about XLink was exactly that you wouldn't have to live with
a single arc per link. Even a two-way link has two arcs and doesn't have a
designated name (like 'complex link') according to the standard.

I would argue that _most_ XLinks will use more than one arc and therefore
most
XLinks are not taken care of by this definition.

In section 5.1 in the example you define a "tooltip" element. This is not
used
again. What's the point?

In section 5.2 the example "Simple link functionality done with an extended
link" shows the attribute xlink:role for the locator element and the
attribute
xlink:arcrole for the go element. What exactly is the analog to the role
attribute
of the simple link? (In 5.5 the spec states that only the role attribute may
be
used in simple links)

In the same section you state the following as a "missing feature":
  * associating a title withe the single hardwired arc
  * associating a role or title with the link as a whole

I understand the first as follows: The title attribute of the simple link
corresponds to the title attribute of the external locator. Maybe this
should
be made a little more explicit.

The second statement I didn't understand. I read the spec again and see, in
5.5
you allow the role and title attributes for elements of the type "extended".
But I am still lost about the meaning of a role and/or a title for an
extended
element. Can you help me?

Received on Monday, 6 November 2000 14:49:26 UTC