Re: [xsl] Pointers are weird

["Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@xxxxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No. XML does not have pointers, any more than it has ints or booleans.

Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo@xxxxxxxxxxx


On Fri, Apr 11, 2025 at 6:31b/AM Roger L Costello costello@xxxxxxxxx <
xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> Occasionally friends come over to my home and I take them on a walk around
> the neighborhood. When I see some thing interesting, I raise my hand and
> position my index finger in the direction of the interesting thing. That
> is, I point at the interesting thing. It seems to me, that that is a real
> pointer--my index finger pointing at some thing.
>
> XML has pointers, e.g.,
>
> <Book ref="SK">...</Book>
>
> <Author id="SK">Stephen King</Author>
>
> The value of the ref attribute, "SK", points to <Author id="SK">
>
> "SK" doesn't look like a pointer to me. It looks like data. XML-aware
> tools, however, treat it as a pointer to the <Author> element with a
> matching id value.
>
> HTML has pointers, e.g.,
>
> <a href="#lesson1">...</a>
>
> <p id="lesson1">...</p>
>
> The value of the href attribute, "#lesson1", points to <p id="lesson1">
>
> "#lesson1" doesn't look like a pointer to me. It looks like data.
> HTML-aware tools, however, treat it as a pointer to the <p> element with a
> matching id value.
>
> I conclude that, in XML and HTML, a pointer is not a pointer at all. It's
> data. It's data that is repeated elsewhere in the document: ("SK" ...
> "SK"), ("#lesson1" ... "lesson1"). For this "pointer fiction" to work, a
> tool that processes the document must participate in the fiction and treat
> ref="SK" as pointing to <Author id="SK"> and treat href="#lesson1" as
> pointing to <p id="lesson1">.
>
> Isn't that weird?
>
> /Roger