XML's designers wanted more than HTML's <a href>: links on any element, links with many ends, pointers into a document and assembly from many files. XLink (1.1, May 2010), the XPointer framework (March 2003) and XInclude (1.0 Second Edition, November 2006) deliver it. Browsers never implemented general XLink or XPointer; XLink survives in SVG and in XBRL's linkbases, while XInclude is everyday plumbing in DocBook and DITA toolchains.