Is using a "null" keydef with <xref> sensible?

[Eliot Kimber <ekimber@reallysi.com>]

I'm in the process of describing how to deal with the case where you have an
xref through a key and you use the topic in two maps. In one map you want
the link to work and in the other map you want the link to be completely
ignored.

I tried creating a "null" keydef, e.g.:

  <keydef
    keys="gloss-tenkan"/>

With the hope that the Open Toolkit would treat this as a link to nothing
and simply suppress the xref.

I don't think the Toolkit's behavior is necessarily wrong, but I'm wondering
if the behavior I was hoping for is sensible?

That is, would it be appropriate to say something like "A cross reference to
a key that has no remote resource and for which link text is available,
either in the key definition or in the content of the xref, should not be
treated as a link. If the cross reference has empty content, the link text
provided by the key definition should be rendered."?

This would allow you to have cross references that could be easily "turned
off" by using "null" key definitions.

Of course, in most, if not all cases, the use of xref could (and probably
should) be replaced with use of <keyword> or <term>, but I thought this was
still an interesting edge case.

Cheers,

Eliot
-- 
Eliot Kimber
Senior Solutions Architect
"Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
Main: 512.554.9368
www.reallysi.com
www.rsuitecms.com