Fw: Namespaces

[Mark Birbeck]

Oren Ben-Kiki wrote:
> So far, so good. But the question is: is it the same 
> relationship between
> "{http://www.w3.org}a"
> and "good" or "{http://www.w3.org}good" in:
> 
> <good {http://www.w3.org}a="1"/>
> <{http://www.w3.org}good {http://www.w3.org}a="1"/>
> 
> If it is the same relationship (I suspect it is) there's no 
> such thing as global attributes

It is the same, but that's because it IS a global attribute, with an
explicit namespace:

	<good n1:a="1" />
	<n1:good n1:a="1" />

Forgive me if I am being presumptuous, but I think what you meant to ask
was is *this* relationship the same:
	<n1:good a="1" />
	<n1:good n1:a="1" />

i.e., given that 'good' is in the 'n1' namespace, is the relationship
between 'a' and 'good' the same in both cases, and I think you have to
say it isn't. All you can say about 'a' DIRECTLY is that it is related
to 'good' and that if you want to you could retrieve the namespace for
'good'. Using the expanded syntax from A.3 in the spec (sorry James,
yours is nice too), we get:

	<ExpAName name='a' eltype="good" elns="http://www.w3.org" />

However, we can say more about 'n1:a':

	<ExpAName name='a' ns="http://www.w3.org" />

Note the latter is a global attribute, because even if we add:

	<n1:better a="1" />
	<n1:better n1:a="1" />

Our complete expanded list becomes:

	<ExpEType name='good' ns="http://www.w3.org" />
	<ExpEType name='better' ns="http://www.w3.org" />
	<ExpAName name='a' eltype="good" elns="http://www.w3.org" />
	<ExpAName name='a' eltype="better" elns="http://www.w3.org" />
	<ExpAName name='a' ns="http://www.w3.org" />

That is, only ONE 'n1:a' entry, even though it's used in both 'good' and
'better'. In other words, it IS a global attribute.

Mark Birbeck
Managing Director
Intra Extra Digital Ltd.
39 Whitfield Street
London
W1P 5RE
w: http://www.iedigital.net/
t: 0171 681 4135
e: Mark.Birbeck at iedigital.net


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