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11. XLL: Superior Linking for XML

The highlights of Extensible Link Language (XLL), the linking standard for XML, include:
Takes Advantage of HyTime and TEI XLL will be designed to take advantage of the linking concepts in HyTime and the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). While these standards have not been widely implemented by software vendors, they provide several powerful improvements to standard HTML linking as well as other features outside the scope of XLL.
Compatible with existing URL linking XLL will fully support the existing link formats of the Web.
Bi-directional links Bi-directional links will allow the user to initiate a traversal from either direction of two pieces of information that are linked together.
Addressing XLL will allow links to pinpoint a certain hierarchical location within a target XML document.
Indirect links Indirect links will vastly improve the maintainability of large collections of Web documents. Currently, if the target of a link changes its path, the file containing the source link must be changed as well. Consider the simple case where a Seattle website points to a page on a Detroit website. If the location of that Detroit page changes, then the link on the Seattle website must be changed too. Permissions for making those changes are likely to be different, so two individuals must manually interact and coordinate. For complex webs, the result can be a nightmare involving high costs and frustrated users.
Indirect links solve that problem. Through XLL, linking will occur indirectly, through a separate, intermediate link file. When a file changes location, only the intermediate file needs to be changed; the source file and destination files can remain intact.

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