Re: XLINK Implementations - REAL or FANTASY?

At 5:20 AM -0400 6/8/01, TOa2671644@aol.com wrote:
>Hi
>
>The site at w3.org (see below) shows only one browser has implemented
>extended XLINKS. I do not understand the wide and excited coverage of XLINK
>if almost no one has produced a browser to use it.

Compare to most other W3C specs -- few were implemented in browsers 
at this stage. Many implementors wait until the spec is done so they 
don't have to re-work; others won't announce early since things may 
change and they can get a PR black eye for not being entirely 
conformant. I know of various non-browser projects that are using and 
implementing XLink for their own systems; there will surely be many 
more as time goes on, especially as users begin to see the power that 
comes from the whole notion of out-of-line linking, which is not 
available via any other Web-related standard. Also, browsers are not 
necessarily the best place to insert an XLink implementation; many 
(not all) reasonable architectures would put it on the server side. 
Depends on what you want to do with it.

-- 
Steve DeRose

Received on Friday, 8 June 2001 11:58:21 UTC