XLink and XML Base have advanced from Candidate Recommendation to Proposed Recommendation status, despite unanswered concerns from the HTML Working Group chair.

Last week, Steven Pemberton reminded the XLink WG of exit criteria::

"Xlink and XML Schema should not exit CR unless there is a solution to generic link recognition that allows XHTML and SMIL to continue to use their current linking markup. In particular, it must be demonstrated that a program can use this solution to detect the linking semantics of XHTML and SMIL linking attributes."

Despite the publication of a Note addressing these issues through XML Schemas, Pemberton's comments make it clear that:

"The HTML WG has read the proposed solution, and have come to the conclusion that this note doesn't address our problems. While there are several aspects that are left open, which we will be happy to elaborate on in more detail, the central architectural failure is the ability to describe more than one URL per element."

Daniel Veillard asked for a quick clarification, but the substance of his answer was simply that "Link recognition is done through type recognition. You can perfectly have multiple attributes of the same type on a single element," which only describes the claimed purpose of the Note. No further public comments have followed.

Related stories:

• XLink and XPointer prepare to move forward
• Imaginary "Schema-XLink" proposed as a W3C note
• XML Base advanced to Candidate Recommendation
• Implementation and feedback wanted for XLink and XPointer
• XLink becomes Candidate Recommendation
• XML Base returns to Last Call
• XLink, XBase move to Last Call