Hiya,

Just to confirm that <term> had only @target and @cRef originally,
c.f. 
<http://www.tei-c.org/Vault/P5/1.2.0/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-term.html> 
(or earlier releases).

In TEI P5 1.3.0 we added att.canonical to <term>
<http://www.tei-c.org/Vault/P5/1.3.0/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-term.html>

In TEI P5 1.7.0 we removed the locally defined @target and added 
the att.pointing class to provide @target (and also @evaluate). 
@cRef remains locally defined.
<http://www.tei-c.org/Vault/P5/1.7.0/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-term.html>

Isn't it great that the earlier releases are available in such an 
easy manner to peruse to make these comparisons. Maybe it is only 
me that finds looking at the historical development of such 
things fun. :-)

I think the point is, as Gabby suggests, that @target and @cRef 
are to be deprecated because their function overlaps with @ref 
and @key. (i.e. anything you can do with target and @cRef, I 
believe you can do inside @ref and @key). Given our attempts 
generally to avoid breaking backwards compatibility (enshrined in 
the so-called 'Birnbaum Doctrine' at 
<http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Council/Working/tcw09.xml>) 
unless we really feel strongly about it.

There has been discussion on the TEI Council mailing list and 
SourceForge about whether @key should be deprecated at some date 
in the far future because the ability of data.pointer (the 
datatype for @ref) to take xsd:anyURI means that it can not only 
take URL-like URIs but also URN-like URIs.  I think this matter 
is far from written in stone though.

-James


On 02/02/11 11:33, Gabriel Bodard wrote:
> My understanding of that line is that it's the former that are
> deprecated. (In addition, I understand that @key is intended to be
> deprecated as well, eventually; @ref is more useful and powerful, as it
> can take both urls and uris as pointers.)
>
> But I'm prepared to be corrected...
>
> G
>
> On 01/02/2011 15:32, Torsten Schassan wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just realised there's a note in the documentation for<term>:
>>
>> "Because the mutually exclusive target and cRef attributes overlap with
>> the function of the ref attribute, they are deprecated and may be
>> removed at a subsequent release."
>>
>> Which one will (most probable) last? @target and @cRef? Or @key and
>> @ref? Will the whole att.pointing be removed?
>>
>> Best, Torsten
>>
>>
>> PS: Btw, the description of @cRef on<term>   gives the description of
>> values both in English and in French.
>>
>


-- 
Dr James Cummings, Research Technologies Service
OUCS, University of Oxford