XML Link Questions

[Peter Murray-Rust]

Since you have had no public replies, I'll add my 2p. I am, like you, a
consumer of XLL and not an author, so I'm prepared to be shot down.

At 17:18 26/10/97 +0000, Neil Bradley wrote:
>Having read the XML Link specification, I have a few questions.
>
>In both the XML Language and XML Link schemes, a target element can 
>be identified by its ID value. Is it possible using XML Link to 
>target an element in a document that does not have a DTD, and if so, 
>how is the target attribute identified, by a fixed attribute name 
>of 'Id'?

I think this can be done through the internal DTD subset. it DOES mean that
the parser has to act on the internal subset, but it needn't be validating.
Thus

<!ATTLIST FOO BAR ID #REQUIRED>

will force all FOO's to have BAR attributes (if validated). It will also
say to the non-validating parser 'if you find a <FOO BAR="baz"> then the
BAR is of type ID whether you have an external DTD or not.
 
>
>Does STRING(1,'testing',0) only select the first character of 
>'testing', or the whole word. If the first character, can DITTO() be 

XLL has no concept of words (it doesn't know what whitespace is). The only
two alternatives are:
	- to select a character
	- to position an inter-character 'cursor'
I suspect the former would get most votes.
	Note that to highlight using pure XLL would require '..' at present. I
would write:
	foo.html#ID(jim)STRING(1,'jim',0)..DITTO()STRING(1,'jim',3) 
to highlight the word 'jim'

Is this how other see it?


>used to specify a range from 't' to 'g', and is DITTO() assumed to 
>start from the enclosing element or from the first character of 
>testing, in which case can DITTO() actually find it?
>
>What impact does case-sensitivity have on the default and replacement 
>attribute names and values. Is 'HREF' or 'href' the default resource 
>locator name, and must 'XML-ATTRIBUTES' (or 'xml-attributes') contain 

This is a very important question. I have asked it on XML-SIG - we'll see
what the gurus think. It is now legal to write:
<FOO HREF="a.xml" href="b.xml" Href="c.xml">

Inconsistency in examples of XML is rife :-) We need this cleared up quickly.

>case-sensitive values ('HREF TARGET TITLE REFTITLE' or 'href target 
>title RefTitle').

	P.

BTW it has been very quiet about XLL for the last 2 months or so. Is anyone
other than me implementing the draft?

	P.

Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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