What is a namespace ... really?

[james anderson]

it's simple - if one allows it to be.

the thing named is the collection of names.

the syntax for the names for these collections of names is that which is
permitted for uri's.

of all things about namespaces in xml, this is one aspect which obviates
interpretation and permits no prevarication: that's exactly and all they wrote.


david at megginson.com wrote:
> 
> Tim Bray writes:
> 
>  > At 06:35 PM 1/16/99 -0800, Terry Allen wrote:
>  > >Now, RFC 2396 says (from the Abstract):
>  > .... [a URI identifies a resource, which can be anything]
>  >
>  > >So the "namespace" URI must identify a resource,
>  >
>  > Well, gosh, but what if it doesn't?  The original design clearly
>  > is intended to support the identification of resources, but we're
>  > using it in a different way.
> 
> Let's call it splits, and say that the resource that the URI
> identifies is the (intangible) namespace itself.
> 

nb. while it's not static, it's also not intangible. any given ns-conformant
processor must have a quite concrete model of what a given namespace is at
every point in time. (neglecting the "null" namespace, for the moment.) since
the uri "names" a namespace only once an attribute-binding has appeared, its
only meaning is exactly that which the processor models.


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