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RE: SkunkLink: a skunkworks XML linking proposal

• To: "'Micah Dubinko'" <MDubinko@c...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: SkunkLink: a skunkworks XML linking proposal
• From: "Michael Kay" <michael.h.kay@n...>
• Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 23:56:38 -0000
• Importance: Normal
• In-reply-to: <BD2DBD26EE0BAA48B1A425C7BE7923002D00D5@c...>
• Reply-to: <michael.h.kay@n...>

> Thinking along these lines, I proposed on www-tag a 'modest 
> hyperlinking proposal' [1] that consisted of only two 
> attributes, 'href' and 'src', both conveniently in the 
> http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace namespace. 'href' links 
> indicate the author's intent that a link should be presented 
> to the user for traversal.

You are making exactly the same mistake. The reason that XLink has not
taken off is that it neglects the basic raison d'etre of XML, which is
to separate information representation from user interface concerns. XML
needs a way to model relationships (it currently has several, none of
which is very good). "Links that should be presented to the user" belong
in a user interface vocabulary, not in XML itself.

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@n...
work: Michael.Kay@s...  

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: SkunkLink: a skunkworks XML linking proposal
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>

• References:
  • SkunkLink: a skunkworks XML linking proposal
    • From: Micah Dubinko <MDubinko@c...>

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