Re: The spec evolves...

Dan Connolly (connolly@pixel.convex.com)
Fri, 04 Dec 92 18:07:49 CST


<!-- I think the A tag is overloaded. I'd like to deprecate
it in favor of the XREF and SEE elements.
-->

<!ELEMENT XREF - - (#PCDATA)
-- This element is for links within an HTML document. (a document
is a collection of entities, or a web of nodes that share context).
-->

<!ATTLIST XREF
CONTEXT CDATA #IMPLIED -- defaults to the entity containing the XREF --
-- SGML purists would make this attribute an ENTITY reference,
and put the URL in the SYSTEM identifier in the prologue.
For expediency, we put the URL right in the attribute.
--
ORIGIN CDATA #IMPLIED
-- another URL, used as an identifier, rather than a locator.
Ala the WAIS original-server,database,local-id triple.
--
REF IDREF #REQUIRED -- ID of referent element --
>

<!ELEMENT SEE - - (#PCDATA)
-- This element is for links from an HTML document to any entity
in the global web. The address and content-type of the entity
are sufficient to resolve the reference.

The other attributes could be specified in the text of the
SEE content, but by making them attributes, the client software
can process them, for example, to display a table of references
sorted by date.
-->
<!ATTLIST SEE
ADDRESS CDATA #REQUIRED -- URL of referent entity --
CONTENT-TYPE CDATA #REQUIRED -- MIME Content-Type for the entity --
TARGET CDATA #IMPLIED
-- This is the analogue of the #anchor mechanism.
If CONTEXT is an SGML entity, this could be an ID,
though it won't be validated.
However, if CONTEXT is a text file, this could be a line number
to scroll to.
The meaning depends on the content-type.
--
ORIGIN CDATA #IMPLIED
-- another URL, used as an identifier, rather than a locator.
Ala the WAIS original-server,database,local-id triple.
--
FROM CDATA #IMPLIED -- email address or name of author/provider --
DATE NUMBER #IMPLIED -- in ISO format: YYYYMMDDHHMMSSZ --
BYTES NUMBER #IMPLIED -- useful in many cases --
MD5 CDATA #IMPLIED -- data signature --
>

Comments are solicited...

Dan