What is a namespace ... really?

[Ronald Bourret]

David Megginson wrote:

> What if I want to create a schema specifying that (for my set of
> documents) an html:p element may contain a tei:foreign element, or a
> docbook:Trademark element in addition to the regular HTML elements?
>
> What if I want to create a schema specifying that (for my set of
> documents) an html:p element may *not* contain an html:font element?
>
> It doesn't make sense to have to create a new and different namespace
> for either of these -- I'm still using the individual elements in
> mostly the same way.

I think you do need to create a new namespace for these.  Each would give 
you multiple definitions of the same variable within the same namespace, 
which makes no more sense for XML than it does for a programming language. 
 Note that an inheritance scheme might work, but the new element would 
exist in your namespace, not the one the supertype inhabits.

-- Ron Bourret


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