xmlns::#FIXED [Re: Problems validating the W3C schema DTD's]

[james anderson]

the quoted statement regarding DTD's is not universal.
it would be more accurate to describe the restriction as:

"MSXML does not treat namespace prefixes as symbolic intermediaries, but
instead as
ordinary characters in element and attribute names."

there is nothing keeping a parser from inferring xmlns binding scope and
performing prefix expansion. while it is true that this requires that the
document's content models be complete and consistent, this not more
restrictive the presumptions entailed by a #FIXED constraint and permits the
DTD-user much greater latitude.

Andrew Layman wrote:
> 
> The MSXML parser requires that any "xmlns" attribute declared in a DTD must
> be FIXED because, if you want to use the DTD to validate an instance, you
> must use exactly the same prefixes in the instance as were used in the DTD.
> 
> Looking at the same point from another angle, DTDs do not treat namespace
> prefixes as symbolic intermediaries, but instead as ordinary characters in
> element and attribute names.  As such, their binding is fixed by the author
> of the DTD, and any alteration of the binding in a document instance would
> produce an instance no longer described by that DTD.


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