XLink Issues [Was: Minutes from 1 August 2001]

FYI. From the HTML WG list, a response of mine to the meeting minutes.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: XLink Issues [Was: Minutes from 1 August 2001]
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 11:27:33 -0700
From: Murray Altheim <murray.altheim@sun.com>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
To: Beth Epperson <beppe@netscape.com>
CC: HTML WG <w3c-html-wg@w3.org>, "Eve L. Maler" <eve.maler@sun.com>
References: <3B6C1874.DB28F7E7@netscape.com>

Beth Epperson wrote:
[...]
> New actions item
> 
> OPEN Steven: Contact the coordination group and explain the problems with
> using Xlink for XHTML 2.0: will send email per suggestion from Ann

Steven and I seem to agree to disagree on the merits/demerits of XLink,
but if you've got a list I'd like to add the one thing I do believe is
a real problem with XLink. I think I could build almost any linking
structure in XHTML with XLink except for the restriction on nesting level;
i.e., XLink elements only "know" about each other at a parent-child level.
If for example an arc is at a grandchild level it's "invisible" to XLink-
compatible processors. 

This is the one change to XLink I'd advocate -- any descendant element 
within an XLink element should be considered part of the link. This 
relaxation in the spec (no change of syntax) would make a big difference 
in my designs (and we'd have used XLink more thoroughly in XML Topic Maps 
and other projects I'm working on).

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim, SGML/XML Grease Monkey  <mailto:murray.altheim&#64;sun.com>
XML Technology Center
Sun Microsystems, 1601 Willow Rd., MS UMPK17-102, Menlo Park, CA 94025

     i am going to see if i cannot reform insects in general
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Received on Thursday, 9 August 2001 06:49:01 UTC