Anchors in Mallard

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

Mallard is missing a feature that was planned from the
beginning.  We need a way for a page or section to own
an ID other than its own.  This really is important for
maintaining a stable set of IDs as documents grow.

I don't know if this can be done by 1.0 or if it has to
be punted to 1.2.  Time will tell.

The basic idea is that a page or section could add an
anchor element to its info.

<page id="new-hotness">
  <info>
    <anchor id="old-and-busted"/>
  </info>
</page>

Or owning a section id:

<page id="new-hotness">
  <info>
    <anchor id="old#busted"/>
  </info>
</page>

The details of what happens when have to be worked out.
There are a few tricky issues to address.

I bring this up now because it occurs to me that this
could be used as a means to remove content, which is
something that's been mentioned lately on ubuntu-doc.
If we consider anchors to have a higher priority than
real IDs (and it's an open question whether we should),
then you could effectively remove a page by claiming
its ID in another page. 

Of course, if you're worried about third-party pages
messing with your help (which has also been mentioned
on ubuntu-doc), this is even more dangerous.

Anyway, this email is just a brain dump.  I don't have
an active proposal right now.  Tell me your thoughts.

-- 
Shaun McCance
http://syllogist.net/