Re: Hyperlink Terminology Re: Comments on June 8 draft

Ralph Ferris (ralph@ossi.com)
Wed, 14 Jun 95 20:20:21 EDT

Terry writes:

> Ralph, I've never been quite sure from this whether HTML's
> <a name="foo"> or Docbook's <PARA ID="A12345">, which only
> indentify spots that *can* be pointed at, are proper Hytime
> anchors. Does a Hytime anchor actually have to be pointed at
> by something else (or itself)?

Yes, HyTime uses the term "anchor" exclusively in this sense.
Keep in mind that in HyTime you can point at *anything* using
an appropriate location ladder, so potentailly *anything* is an
anchor. Determining what really is an anchor (in the HyTime sense)
is one of the functions you expect a HyTime engine to provide. The
engine ascertains 1) what links point to a given anchor 2) what
anchors are pointed at by a given link. (Exactly how this
information is provided and when is implementation dependent.)
Note that if an anchor of a given link is determined
dynamically (i.e., through a query), then it won't be known until
the link has been traversed and the results of the query resolved.

Ralph E. Ferris
Project Manager, Electronic Publications
Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions, Inc. (FOSSI), Engineering Services
Phone: (408) 456-7806 Fax: (408) 456-7050
E-mail: ralph@ossi.com

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