SAX, Java, and Namespaces (was Re: Restricted Namespaces for XML)

[hpyle at agora.co.uk]

Tyler wrote,
>  If XML is ever going to be editable by an average
> internet user for some common tasks, meaningful prefixes do matter.

Can I ask for some "average user" stuff here?  Now that the namespace
arguments have been rounded up a few times.

Although James Clarks' page does explain the state of affairs very clearly,
it's still talking to the wrong people.  What I & my other
average-developer colleagues need is more like a "cookbook".  Not the
intricacies of why flour plus butter behave so strangely;  we need to know
how to roll the pastry out.

Current interest in XML - in the absence of many standardised industry DTDs
- means there's a pressing need to explain how to design sensible XML
structures.  Whilst there are plenty of XML examples appearing on the Web,
few of them are well-designed (my pet peeve: people coding a date as
"2/21/99").  Namespaces seem to be an essential solution to two problems
encountered when designing XML stuctures:
- how can I distinguish my tags from everyone else's, to avoid confusion
(eg: "<my:pastry/>");
- how can I use a common repository of meaningful tags at the same time
(eg: "<frozen:pastry><my:sauce
iso:litres_quantity="0.5"/></frozen:pastry>")
With a few examples.  Finally, we need directions to the local pizza
house...

-Hugh
agora
hpyle at agora.co.uk



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