Is there a way to define a "custom" [[spec: xxx]] -- to an external spec other than the pre-defined ones?

[swcurran]

I love that I can reference W3C and IETF specs using the [[spec:rfc123]] syntax, get a mouse over link and an appendix list of specs.

Is there a way that I can use a spec reference to a any URL I want -- specs that Spec-Up doesn't know about? For example, I want to reference the DIF "Linked Verifiable Presentation" spec. If I do [[spec:linked-vp]], I just see that literal in the rendered text. Is there a way to add my own URLs that I defined as "specs" so that they benefit from the spec: feature? Other examples -- ISO specs (although that might have to be to Wikipedia to avoid the paywall), W3C working documents, etc.

Thanks!

[swcurran]

RTFM -- see documentation section on External Specs. Solved.

[swcurran]

And trying it out makes me realize that External Specs are not the same, even though the have such a promising name.

Is there a way to extend the known [[spec:xyz]] references?

[csuwildcat]

I'm sure I could figure something out. Why don't we take a look at IIW next week?

[csuwildcat]

Is your main goal to enable one-offs to have the same format that the other refs have, or to create and draw from a new corpus of formatted refs? The former would be easier, but we could do the latter if we had a location to host the new ref catalog.

[swcurran]

My main goal was to be able to add the needed specs to the JSON file, and then reference them in the various categories in the document — so the first one from your list. I didn’t realize until talking to @brianorwhatever that there was a standard list of reference-able specs. That feature is great, and it would be nice to have a link to that list. But ultimately, any list cannot include everything needed for a given spec, so I think having a way to add spec-specific references is necessary.

[henkvancann]

[[spec]] is another tool and another concept than [[xref:]] and [[tref:]], they can both be used in the future.

[[spec]] refers to whole documents/specifications and offers a categorisation.

[[xref:]] and [[tref:]] are references to individual external definitions in related spec-up-(t)-based repos/specification

[[xref:]] is already present in DIF's Spec-Up, [[tref:]] will be added shortly.

@swcurran : Is there a way to define a "custom" [[spec: xxx]] -- to an external spec other than the pre-defined ones.

You could always use bare URLs, but then you miss the sophisticated characteristics of xref and tref, which are popups at hoovering, traceability, local backup, and diffs with git. That's because we need to define them in Specs.json.

[swcurran]

@brianorwhatever has implemented the feature that I was looking for. AFAIK, it is not in the DIF version of SpecUp. I’m using it in did:wehvh — notable, In the specs.json file, we can add specs as defined below, and then reference them in a spec as [[spec:multiformats]] (for example), get the mouseover popup, the link and an entry in the list of specs produced by inserting [[spec]] into the markdown. Works great.

@brianorwhatever also shared with me that the default lists of specs are the W3C, IETF and WhatWG lists from the tobie/specref repo. See line 20 in this SpecUp file

      "external_specs": [
        {
          "multiformats": {
            "href": "https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-multiformats-multibase/08/",
            "title": "Multiformats",
            "rawDate": "2024-02-21",
            "authors": [
              "Juan Benet",
              "Manu Sporny"
            ],
            "status": "Internet Draft"
          }
        },
        {
          "di-eddsa-v1.0": {
            "href": "https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-di-eddsa",
            "title": "Data Integrity EdDSA Cryptosuites v1.0",
            "rawDate": "2024-12-08",
            "authors": [
              "Dave Longley",
              "Manu Sporny"
            ],
            "status": "W3C Technical Recommendation"
          }
        }
      ]