Another look at namespaces

[Simon St.Laurent]

At 12:27 PM 9/16/99 -0400, Ann Navarro wrote:
>I don't read Andrew's comments as saying "schemas and only schemas" can do
>what he proposes. Therefore nothing in that conflicts with Tim's assertions. 

Er... no.  Perhaps this needs a clarification from Andrew, as that (on an
additional re-reading) still sounds exactly like what he was saying.
Schemas are 'prior to all other processing'.  While the last paragraph at
least opens the term 'schema' up to include more than just XML Schemas per
the latest W3C proposals, it remains incredibly schema-centric in a way
that I don't believe harmonizes well with Tim's original assertion.

>It's very clear that additional functionality is desired and needed (as I
>suggested some weeks ago now (an unfilled need)), just how that may come
>about is yet to be determined. 

This conversation is illustrating quite nicely just how many 'unfilled
needs' there are, and how many differing opinions there are on how to fill
them.

>Nothing in the current proposals being debated sets functionality. Instead,
>it provides granularity in namespaces making a nod toward the possibility
>of additional functionality. 
>It may turn out to be unnecessary, but as I've said before, I believe it
>easier to remove that granularity later (or simply ignore it), than it will
>be to put it back in at some later date. 

I still find this argument unconvincing.  One schema per namespace appears
to be what you're arguing for here, and I don't see that as a fundamental
characteristic of either schemas or namespaces, much less the fairly weak
differentiation between the different 'brands' of HTML.  

It may be that the tools we have are inadequate. I don't think, however,
that we've yet reached the conclusion that three namespaces will let us do
better with either the tools we have today or the tools we may have tomorrow.

Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer (2nd Ed - September)
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
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http://www.simonstl.com

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