6.2 Events and Ranges

LMNL, the Layered Markup and Annotation Language, defines (non-XML) tags that mark events, which can then be treated as the starts and ends of ranges. uDoc implements this concept in XML in two ways.

The “short tags” uDoc uses in tag minimization are actually instances of events in the content stream. When udx converts them to full tags, it is generating ranges from them based on the rules in its udx.ini file.

What if you want to overlap elements? In XML, you can't, and MicroXML does not change that rule. However, uDoc defines two data elements that effectively permit overlapping by defining ranges, which can be considered “virtual elements”:

<start>

The start of a virtual element, with @name and (optional) @id, and any other common attributes wanted, such as @src. It may be empty, as in <start name="John"/>, or contain content itself, whatever is needed.

<end>

The end of a virtual element, with @name and, if the start had an @id, an @idref to it.

This is another way in which uDoc adapts the tool to you, instead of requiring that you adapt to the tool.

Previous Topic:  6.1 Creating New Elements

Next Topic:  6.3 Range Generation

Parent Topic:  Chapter 6. uDoc Elements

Sibling Topics:

6.1 Creating New Elements

6.3 Range Generation

6.4 Creating New Shorthand Symbols

6.5 Foreign Elements

6.6 Content Models

6.7 Element Properties

6.8 Element Attributes