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Re: XLink olden days

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: XLink olden days
• From: Lars Marius Garshol <larsga@g...>
• Date: 10 Aug 2002 23:58:39 +0200
• In-reply-to: <E17dddl-0005RV-00@m...>
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• Sender: larsga@p...
• User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.1

* Uche Ogbuji
| 
| BTW, XML Topic Maps was able to use XLink quite well.  It seems
| their demands would be more exacting than those of a hypertext
| presentation format.  I have long expressed support/desire for an
| RDF serialization that uses XLink, and in the little experimentation
| I've undertaken, I also don't see the insurmountable problems XLink
| poses.

I think the problem here is not obstacles presented by XLink, but the
fact that it is not clear what value XLink adds. Sure, XTM uses XLink,
but what does that buy us? Frankly, apart from marketing value I must
admit I have no idea. 

As far as I know, nobody has ever used the XLink mechanisms in XTM for
anything, or even considered doing something concrete with it. I don't
expect to ever see it, either.

XLink is weaker than it seems, since although the arcs are strongly
typed the identity and nature of the nodes being connected is anything
but clear. In RDF and topic maps, however, that is different; you know
perfectly well what is being linked.

I think XLink has value for documents, but for data (like topic maps
and RDF) I just don't see the point. For these forms of information,
topic maps and RDF do the same thing, and they do it so much better
that using XLink for data is pointless.

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopian         <URL: http://www.ontopia.net >
ISO SC34/WG3, OASIS GeoLang TC        <URL: http://www.garshol.priv.no >

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