The W3C has released a new Working Draft of XLink and an initial draft of XBase, a mechanism for creating the functionality of the HTML BASE element in XML.

Daniel Veillard announced the new drafts today, describing XLink as 'near completion' (though not a last call WD) and XBase as 'simple' and something the W3C hopes to complete quickly.

XLink includes new resource and title elements in extended links, and has shifted arcs from referencing ID values on particular resources to referencing roles, allowing developers to define relationships between groups of resources rather than only single resources. Extended links may now be both inline and out-of-line, while simple links must be inline. Perhaps most important is the addition of a considerable amount of explanatory text and pictures.