Namespaces and DTDs

[Charles Reitzel]

Ah, my favorite thing to hate about XML <grin>.

Seriously, though.  I have yet to hear of a single real application that
needs element level prefix declarations.  Not one!  The PI was just fine for
99.99% of applications.  The 0.01% should simply not use XML (or may need an
additional layer, such as AF or a schema processor).  Element declared
namespaces is a solution in search of a problem.  Unfortunately, namespaces
have effectively killed DTD validation.

My wish list for namespaces is as follows:
1) The prefix should be set by document author, *not* the DTD author.
2) The FPI should be set by the DTD author.
3) Prefixes should have document scope.
4) Namespaces should be part of XML proper and *not* an add on.
5) Element names should be resolved in the namespace of the nearest ancestor. 

Until most of these conditions are met, I predict the demise of DTD's.  It
may be too late already...

Best regards,
Charles Reitzel

>From: james anderson <James.Anderson at mecomnet.de>
>Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 11:49:51 +0100
>Subject: Re: Namespaces and DTDs
>
>That "REC-xml-names-19990114" does not provide any means to establish
>prefix<->uri bindings for a DTD has long been a point of contention. A cursory
>search of the archives will bear this out. The decision to eliminate the
>combined prefix/uri/dtd binding (the original pi form) was, however, correct,
>as the pi form, at least as proposed in "WD-xml-names-19980327", would not
>have been sufficient to handle such things as a dtd which needs multiple
>prefix bindings or the situation where a given prefix<->uri binding is to
>apply to multiple schema sources.
>
>While it is true that some mechanism is necessary, a form - as discussed below
>- - which effected a singular binding would also not have solved the problem.
>"Everyone" would seem to be waiting for "schemas"....
>
>Marc.McDonald at Design-Intelligence.com wrote:
>> 
>> A simple extension to namespaces could have fixed this problem:
>> 1.      Allow a DTD to be optionally specified along with the namespace
>> prefix and URI
>> 2.      When an element is prefixed, parse it using the DTD associated with
>> the namespace and the given prefix as the default.
>> 3.      If no DTD is associated with the prefix or not validating, do what
>> is done now (ensure element is well-formed).


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