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Re: XPDL (was Re: XML is broken)

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At 05:39 PM 4/6/99 +0200, Chris Lilley wrote:
>What I was suggesting was quite a different thing. At present, the
>document instance is used as a sort of dual\-function manifest - it
>contains a lot of the content, and it also contains the manifest for the
>compound document. So in a typical HTML document for example we find
>links to images, to sounds, videos; links to stylesheets, links to
>external JavaScripts, etc. And to link to that compound document, witha
>simple link, we link to the document.
>
>The manifest I was proposing would be a separate thing, with no content
>at all, just links.
>You would point to one, and get one (or more) documents, plus assorted
>stylesheets, images, etc, as needed. And if you wanted a different view
>or to assemble a different compound document, you would make a new
>manifest which would have a separate address,  and link to that. None of
>the original components would need to change, there would be no
>hardcoded stylesheet links (or PIs etc) in the actual content, just in
>the manifest. And you miht already have some of the components cached.

That's pretty much what an XPDL file looks like, with hrefs pointing to all
sizable chunks of information.  It's not a manifest for a particular
document (it's referenced by the document, rather than it referencing the
document), but that functionality wouldn't be difficult to add for
particular use-cases.

Adding scripts to the functionality might be a good idea...

>Clearly. Actually, using XML and XLink and XPointer is clearly The Even
>Righter Thing.

Because of the instability and slow development of XLink, I've stuck to
using simple hrefs, which I intend eventually to convert to formal simple
XLinks.  Once XLink and XPointer are stable, many Even Righter Things will
at long last be possible.

Once again, for those interested, XPDL is at http://purl.oclc.org/NET/xpdl .

Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer
Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies
http://www.simonstl.com


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