Re: scrollIntoView for XML documents

An xpointer like
"http://www.the325project.org/factlog/EusebiusLifeOfConstantine.xml#xpointer(/xhtml2:html[1]/xhtml2:body[1]/xhtml2:section[4]/xhtml2:section[59]/range-to(/xhtml2:html[1]/xhtml2:body[1]/xhtml2:section[4]/xhtml2:section[62]))"

where the xml file is xhtml2 (section, h etc). It's easy to split the
xpointer now and use xpath resolution to resolve a selection of text.
The missing piece is being able to scrollIntoView!

I don't think styled XML is ever arbitrary - after all the style sheet
defines what to render as a block or inline etc. What I'm trying to say
is that thanks to XML/CSS/XPath support, Firefox can render any
document and if the XML DOM supported scrollIntoView, it could allow
full navigation using intra-doc links, menus etc.

I do this right now but I cheat: I redefine xhtml2 with xhtml's
namespace. The browser then uses the HTML DOM and scrollIntoView works.
"section" etc are still rendered - the DOM is flexible. However, this a
hack. One change - supporting positioning in XML documents - and the
plain XML DOM and renderer can be used.

Boris Zbarsky wrote:
> conor325 wrote:
> > And would it then make sense to go "the whole way" and support
> > scrollIntoView for such mixed namespace documents too? Given that
> > Mozilla supports CSS styling and XPath resolution for arbitrary XML
> > already, add this and there is little or no reason to recompose XML
> > into HTML for viewing.
>
> Except if you want your documents to be accessible.  Or have useful
semantics in
> general....
>
> Sending arbitrary XML on the wire is generally NOT a good idea.
>
> > With this triple, a pointer to any place in an
> > XML document is easy to render in a browser window.
> 
> Define "place in an XML document", please?
> 
> -Boris