[Doc-SIG] Implicit Link Targets

[Tony J Ibbs (Tibs)]

castor@snafu.de (what a nice name) wrote:
> Reading the `specification docs`_ once more, I realized it
> might be pretty desirable to have implicit link targets. More
> specifically, I suggest that titles of sections like
>
> 	Section Titles
> 	==============
>
> as well as figure captions
...deletia...
> Is that desirable/implementable?

The obvious problem is that of any such scheme, which is the difficulty
of preserving unambiguity. There are contexts where one is required (by
some external fiat or other) to write documents with a structure like:

	Section 1
	---------

	Introduction
	~~~~~~~~~~~~

	blah blah

	Details
	~~~~~~~

	blah blah

	Section 2
	---------

	Introduction
	~~~~~~~~~~~~

	blah blah

and so on (I'm sure you get the idea). It becomes impossible to indicate
a particular "Introduction" unambiguously without a more complex scheme
(for instance, having to specify `Section 1//Introduction`_ - this way
lies XPath) and given that the document owner (presumably) knows when
they want labels, it's easier for them to just put them in where they're
actually needed.

There's also, then, the "side benefit" that one can see *what* is being
referenced from elsewhere (heh, a "ComeFrom" statement!) - although this
is not something I've ever particularly made conscious use of.

The advantage of David's original idea is that it is both simple and
globally used.

Tibs

--
Tony J Ibbs (Tibs)      http://www.tibsnjoan.co.uk/
In Python it's clearer to talk about "names" and "bindings"
rather than "variables" and "values". (Greg Ewing)
My views! Mine! Mine! (Unless Laser-Scan ask nicely to borrow them.)