Re: [xsl] Pointers are weird

["Dave Pawson dave.pawson@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you Elliotte.
  Roger, if you want to understand pointers,
have a look at C or Assembly language.
Indirection, double indirection are a little
more clear than XML.

regards

On Fri, 11 Apr 2025 at 18:42, Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@xxxxxxxxxxx <
xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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
>>
>>
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