? XLink/Pointer expressiveness

james anderson (James.Anderson@mecom.mixx.de)
Fri, 05 Jun 1998 21:56:58 +0200


greetings,

i have a question for the "xlink/x-pointer" proficient:

how would i express several references to subelements of a remote resource?

if xml were referentially transparent, something like (taking an simplistic case)

<patient id="01">
<name>
<first>edward</first>
<last>dolittle</last>
</name>
<history id="02" href="http://hostpital/patients?name=edward.dolittle" />
<last-treatment
href="http://hostpital/patients?name=edward.dolittle#child(-1,treatment)" />
</patient>

wouldn't trouble me. but xml is not, so i would like to do something like:

<patient id="01">
<name>
<first>edward</first>
<last>dolittle</last>
</name>
<history id="02" href="http://hostpital/patients?name=edward.dolittle" />
<last-treatment href="id(02).child(-1,treatment)" />
</patient>

which makes intuitive sense, but not necessarily structural sense - depending
on the document model and link behaviour.

?
are the fine points to link behaviour / type which are intended to govern such situations?

?