Editorial issue in 4.2

I believe the following paragraph in section 4.2 is needlessly confusing:

[Definition: The portion of the acquired infoset to be included is 
called the inclusion target.] The document information item of the 
acquired infoset serves as the inclusion target unless the xpointer 
attribute is present and identifies a subresource. XPointers of the 
forms described in [XPointer Framework] and [XPointer element() scheme] 
must be supported. XInclude processors optionally support other forms of 
XPointer such as that described in [XPointer xpointer() Scheme]. An 
error in the XPointer is a resource error.


My problem is with the phrase "and identifies a subresource". If the 
xpointer does not identify a subresource, then it is an error according 
to the XPointer specification, and therefore a resource error according 
to the end of this paragraph. However the 2nd sentence implies that in 
this case (xpointer attribute is present but does not identify a 
subresource) that the document information item of the acquired infoset 
serves as the inclusion target. I think this would be clearer if the 
phrase "and identifies a subresource" were removed, because if an 
xpointer attribute is present the document information item of the 
acquired infoset does not serve as the inclusion target unless the 
xpointer specifically identifies the document information item.

Hmm, maybe that's what you were thinking of here? Not the error 
condition? If so, I'd suggest rewriting as follows:

[Definition: The portion of the acquired infoset to be included is 
called the inclusion target.] The document information item of the 
acquired infoset serves as the inclusion target if the xpointer 
attribute is not present. If the xpointer attribute is present and 
identifies a subresource, then that subresource is the inclusion target. 
An error in the XPointer, including a failure to identify any 
subresources, is a resource error. XPointers of the forms described in 
[XPointer Framework] and [XPointer element() scheme] must be supported. 
XInclude processors optionally support other forms of XPointer such as 
that described in [XPointer xpointer() Scheme].


-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo@metalab.unc.edu

Received on Friday, 1 October 2004 13:14:20 UTC