Note

Date: Feb. 24, 1999
Link: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-xptr-req
Source Author or Organization: W3C

Excerpted from "Abstract": "This document presents requirements for the XPointer language. XPointer provides ways to directly identify any node, data, or selection in any XML document by describing its structure and context. An identified data location is called a "target."

"The XPointer specification is particularly meant to enable hyperlinks to identify any such data, regardless of whether there is (or even could be) an ID on the target or not. The XPointer specification is now being developed in the XML-Linking Working Group, building on Working Drafts developed in the XML Working Group."

"Because the XPointer language must refer to structural parts of XML documents, those structures must be explicit. Document structure specifications such as DOM and the XML Information Set may wish to consider the XPointer requirements in order to insure interoperability when used with XPointer and XLink."