jon said:
>   One argument brought up here yesterday is that
>   the interlinking of publications, especially deep linking
>   to spots within documents, is so brittle as to be useless
>   (e.g., move the resource, the URL changes, voile' the link is broken.)

that wasn't my "argument" at all.

my argument was that people who make promises about
their ability to pull off deep linking cannot back them up
_unless_ they posit a means of dealing with impermanence.
but if such a means is accepted, _anyone_ can do deep linking.


>   It does, however, require a unique identifier for each resource.

and here it is in jon's post:  weaseling via a "unique identifier".

heck, if everything has a "unique identifier", _i_ can give you
a deep-linking system based on zen markup language.  easily.
and -- as always -- _without_ the cost of any heavy-markup.

you're just shifting the permanence requirement from the u.r.l.
to the unique identifier.  it's sleight-of-hand, and nothing more.


>   the W3C suite of related technologies of XLink/XPointer/XPath/xml:id/etc. --

one trick that a hand-waver counts on to distract you is to
point to a bunch of acronyms as if _they_ solve the problem.
but if you look at them closely, they're mired in the same muck.


>   It is not *my* system at all (as the poster alluded to),
>   and makes no difference whether I myself
>   build some sort of linking system or not.

it makes a difference whether _anyone_ builds such a system or not.

considering how widespread and well-developed you claim x.m.l. to be,
why isn't such a system _already_ developed and out proving its worth?

as it is, i see the ability to link to paragraphs, but _only_provided_that_
every paragraph that you want to link to has heavy markup attached.
i suppose we could deep-link to every darn _character_ if we wanted to,
provided we were willing to bloat up every file to an unbelievable level.

(in this regard, see
>   http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/05/30/pink-numbers#w200405302127-53
for a silly word-based version.)


>   To reiterate, XML provides standardized and convenient hooks
>   for linking and deep linking into publications.

you always _state_ that x.m.l. solves the problems.
but you never tell us _how_ it solves the problems.
you drop acronyms, wave your hands, and that's it.

as usual, you're asking people to buy a pig in a poke.
and as usual, i'm asking to see the pig, not the poke.

-bowerbird