[sword-devel] subsection references -- OSIS equivalent of ThML #anchor?

[Karl Kleinpaste]

As folks here know, I continue to generate ThML modules, mostly due to
its simplicity of use via its "HTML plus goodies" nature, the goodies
being <note>, <scripRef>, and some <div> cases.  I'm looking for
information or opinion about whether something I've worked on, currently
specific to ThML, has an equivalent interpretation in OSIS.

This week, I've done some work in Xiphos so as to be able to support
#anchor references.  The immediate use is for how I roll my own NET and
NETnote modules, NET being my most-used translation these days.  In NET,
I generate this kind of footnote content:

<note><a href="sword://NETnote/Ge1:2#n13">Note 13</a></note>

Now, in Xiphos, passing over a footnote marker "*n", "Note 13" goes to
the previewer, as a link.  Clicking the link kicks our main URL handler,
separating module+verse reference from anchor, navigates the reference
(in both Bible and commentary), then jumps to the anchor.

Similarly, NETnote now has each note self-identified thus:

<a name="n13" href="sword://NETnote/Ge1:2#n13"><font size="-1"><b>13 -</b></font></a>

This provides the anchor reference name to be used from the NET
footnote, and also makes each note self-clickable, meaning that I can
click a footnote marker within NETnote itself (whether it's from the
current verse or not), to induce that footnote to home to top of pane
and force the Bible pane to navigate to the relevant verse as well.

This content is easy and directly implementable for paired (companion)
modules like NET + NETnote.  Another use case for this markup is
e.g. the possibility of bookmark references in genbooks, where
/The/Section/Under/This/Complicated/Key may be very long, and
availability of references to individual paragraphs could be very
useful.  Tack on #paragraph12 to such a key, and now getting to a
particular reference in a 50-paragraph theological thesis section
becomes easy.

I'm thinking about this kind of issue especially in terms of user
content authoring, that is, Xiphos now has personal commentary,
prayerlists and journals, and highlighter-style verse annotations, all
due to user requests for more user-contributed content.  Users who want
to author serious content in their own personal commentaries or journals
should be able to provide these kinds of markers in their own content,
and to reference others' markers when they write.

Two problems, for which I'd like to see comment:

[a] This capability is Xiphos-specific at the moment; I'm not aware that
any other Sword UI contemplates #anchor-specific navigation.  How do
others feel about making such a capability available?

[b] One question is whether there is a semantic equivalent of #anchor in
OSIS.  Does the syntax for osisRef provide for subsection indication?
Can it escape the filtration system so as to arrive at the app in this
kind of URL #anchor?  Generally, what's the state of osisRef support?

--karl