[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: XPointer is dead. What about XLink?
Michael, I imagine that one reason the XBRL organization chose the Xlink vocabulary was simply the perception of it being a 'standard'. Embracing XML as a standard was very effective for the organizations adoption efforts so why not Xlink as well. It has been broadly accepted in the international community and used by multiple regulators around the world. Little did we know that XBRL would be the lead horse relative to Xlink use but still, we could point to it as a standard supported by the W3C. That was an important aspect of the business case for its use. And from a use perspective, it seems to achieve what it needs to achieve. I just don't have the benefit of comparing it to a different xml implementation designed for a similar purpose and achieving similar results. I have looked at schemas that contain similar information in one file and they look incomprehensibly busy to me. Kind of like dumping a database into a spreadsheet. The Xlink vocabulary allows an XBRL taxonomy designer to easily model a business report with different linkbases for different types of relationships. For general use, the taxonomies includes linkbases that define presentational relationships, summation relationships, multi-dimensional relationships, different labels that are available for presentation use, and a linkbase for reference to external resources, which for financial reporting is the authoritative literature. There is also a business rules linkbase and a "generic" linkbase. These separate linkbases are very flexible. A couple of current examples, the FASB just published a linkbase that drops right into US-GAAP taxonomies without requiring a revision to the schemas - plug and play - and the IASB continues to release new language linkbases for the IFRS that similarly requires no changes to the base schemas but allows the user to select the language of choice for the labels. I imagine there are other standardized ways to achieve these outcomes I just don't know what they are. I've read some things about RDF/OWL and the idea that XBRL's future might be here but I've not done enough research yet to really understand it. Louis Matherne -----Original Message----- From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@saxonica.com] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:25 PM To: 'Louis Matherne'; xml-dev@lists.xml.org Subject: RE: XPointer is dead. What about XLink? > I'd be very interested in hearing > your perspective or learning what you would have done > different with XBRL relative to its structure and > specifically Xlink, which is fundamental to its architecture. I think the interesting question to ask is whether XBRL gains any benefits as a result of the decision to use the XLink vocabulary for linking, rather than inventing its own? For example, does the reuse of vocabulary elements enable any reuse of an underlying software layer? Or does it enable the reuse of skills and knowledge associated with that vocabulary? Because unless it achieves such benefits, it would surely have been better to design a vocabulary more finely tuned to the specific needs of XBRL. Regards, Michael Kay http://www.saxonica.com/ http://twitter.com/michaelhkay _______________________________________________________________________ XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by OASIS to support XML implementation and development. To minimize spam in the archives, you must subscribe before posting. [Un]Subscribe/change address: http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/ Or unsubscribe: xml-dev-unsubscribe@lists.xml.org subscribe: xml-dev-subscribe@lists.xml.org List archive: http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
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