The per-element-type namespace partition

[Andrew Layman]

The namespaces specification is about telling names apart.  There may be
semantics associate with the names, and in that case, distinguishing names
is a precondition of distinguishing semantics.

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Park [mailto:donpark at docuverse.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 1999 3:20 PM
To: xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
Subject: RE: The per-element-type namespace partition


>That disclaimer aside, I recall that a major part of the 
>motivation for the distinction was the desire to allow for
>"global attributes," where a qualified attribute such as
>"foo:href" could have a definition and meaning independent
>of the element within which it appeared, and at the same time
>continue the current practice fostered by DTDs in which an
>unqualified attribute may have a definition and meaning local
>to the enclosing element.

But namespaces are not about semantics but about
avoiding name clashes.  In other words, the namespace
spec is about telling 'foo:href' apart from 'html:href'
and not about what 'foo:href' means within a certain
element.  Am I mistaken?

Best,

Don Park    -   mailto:donpark at docuverse.com
Docuverse   -   http://www.docuverse.com


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