Refactoring XPointer

I would like to support refactoring XPointer to allow very simple pointer 
schemes, without forcing every XML application that needs pointers to 
support a full complex hypertext system. This is important for basic 
architectural reasons. On the web as a whole, we desperately need a 
*simple* way to point into XML documents. It should be simple and efficient 
enough to be used in specifications like these:

1. XQuery needs to traverse pointers among documents.
2. XML Schema should extend its notion of referential integrity beyond the 
single document boundary.
3. RDF needs to identify nodes in a document.

For these kinds of applications, supporting all of the current XPointer 
specification is inefficient, increases the complexity of implementation 
and testing, and raises difficult questions about how constructs like 
ranges should be treated. A simple pointer should not require namespace 
processing, DTD or schema processing, or processing the full XPath 
language. (The need for a simple pointer along these lines has also been 
noted by Tim Bray and James Clark - see 
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/11/07/id.html)

The more specialized functionality of the current XPointer specification is 
also important, but to a much smaller audience. That audience includes many 
scholars whose work should be supported --  commercial significance is not 
the only useful measure of value. However, this really should be placed in 
a different scheme from the simple pointers mentioned above.

Jonathan

Received on Tuesday, 5 February 2002 03:45:35 UTC