Re: Which file should be the basis for pointing into XSLT?

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

At 00/08/31 15:19 -0400, Tony Graham wrote:
>Base the navigation on the XML sources of the Recommendations.

Yes, this is my gut feel.

I realize this is contrary to Eduardo's intuition, but I really feel the 
HTML document is but a rendition and isn't normative.

>A version of the HTML with sufficient anchors for us to individually
>locate every significant phrase in the Recommendations doesn't
>currently exist, so we (or you) are going to have to create it.

My plan is to anchor every HTML text node with the XPointer of that text 
node's location in the XML rendition.

>  > I think that perhaps what we do is document the XML XPointer but use the
>  > HTML XPointer for jumping into a modified version of the HTML rendition
>  > with anchors for every text node.  I'll work out a way to synchronize 
> the two.
>
>But what current software understands HTML XPointers?
>
>When you put anchors in the HTML, base them on the XPointer of the
>corresponding element or span of text in the XML source,

Whups!  Yup, that's what I was planning.

But I was going to try and base the XPointers on IDs if possible instead of 
the root ... hopefully this will be more resilient to change.

>so that once
>you have the XPointer for the location in the XML source, you can
>create a link to the corresponding location in the HTML.

Yes, I agree.

>An alternative is for us to ID every significant element and every
>significant span of text -- since we do need a way to associate
>individual tests with their relevant text in the Recommendations --
>and use those IDs as anchors in the HTML version.

Well ... let's take a look at what happens when I do every text node and 
we'll see if that is sufficient granularity for our purposes.  After all, 
these are just to be guidelines for the reader of a given test.

>IDs rather than either XPointers or IDs that are XPointers in disguise
>would be more robust across versions of the specs.

Perhaps I should read your entire note before I begin answering. :{)}

>Ideally, I'd like to have data in the form of ID-XPointer pairs, the
>XML for a Recommendation, and an XSLT stylesheet that reads the data
>and the Recommendation and then produces an HTML version with anchors
>in place for every significant span of text specified in the data.  If
>the users have an HTTP-savvy XSLT processor, they should be able to
>run the stylesheet on the Recommendation's XML that is on the W3C's
>web site.

But I've discovered that it wasn't XSLT used to create the XSLT 
Recommendation ... it is a DSSSL script using James' SGML semantics.  I've 
written the supplied address for Ben Trafford and it bounced as un-sendable.

>The generated HTML can be referred to from other parts of the test
>suite's documentation, plus it should be possible to get from a span
>of text in the HTML to the tests that test for the specific behaviour
>defined by that span of text.

Hmmmmmmmm ... let me think on that.  I may have to make that a separate 
document if I cannot combine both sets of requirements.

I'll see what I can do before Wednesday's meeting

................... Ken

--
G. Ken Holman                    mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
Crane Softwrights Ltd.             http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/m/
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