> If I have an element that teaches a topic, and I give it an ID, and then I
> delete that chapter, but there is another chapter that could also teach
> the topic, shouldn't I be able to transfer the ID?
IMO no. Two objects with the same ID are really the *same* object,
not just equivalent for a specified purpose. (To a learner, your
chapters might be equivalent; to a bibliographer, they wouldn't be.)
> Anyhow, whether names are arbitrary or not, the real problem is that there
> is only one ID namespace when we really need many of them. IDs name an
> element, but elements can need multiple names, just as anything else can.
Yes, but IDs aren't the way to model user-friendly names. This
email has many "names", but only one Message-ID, which is as it should
be; that Message-ID is globally unique unless there are bugs somewhere.
-- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)