Re: Proposal for XREF element

Michael J Hannah (mjhanna@sandia.gov)
Tue, 1 Aug 95 15:42:00 EDT

My interpretation of this proposal is that you are trying to get
at the number that is autogenerated by the <OL> entity and then
reference it elsewhere. As I indicated in my Generic LIST element
proposal (see http://www.sandia.gov/sci_compute/lists.html)
I believe that access to autonumbering (and referencing that
autonumber) is so important that the concept should be completely
generalized. See my <NUM> element in that proposal, and the
recent email on www-html@w3.org of proposed modifications to that
<NUM> entity.

In other words, I agree with the intent of this XREF thread, but
believe that it is not going far enough and in the wrong direction
in its mechanism. Don't try to access the number generated by <OL>.
Construct a truly general purpose numbering mechanism, and uncouple
it from the list mechanism. Lists are just one place you need numbers.
Make them directly available to the document writer, not buried as
part of some mechanism, or lost inside some style sheet which may or
may not be accessible.

Michael Hannah