Another look at namespaces

[Andrew Layman]

A little more courtesy should be extended to the members of the HTML WG.  

The namespaces specification describes a mapping from colonized names to
URIs, and indicates that the function of this is universal identification.
The specification does not require that a namespace correspond to anything
like a schema; but neither does it forbid such correspondence, either
generally or in specific contexts.  The specification does not require that
identification indicate semantics, but neither does it forbid it, either
generally or in specific contexts. And so on.  No one should take the
silence of the specification on a particular subject as equivalent to either
a recommendation or a proscription.  Silence is just ... silence.

On reading the specification, some may wish that it said more, or said what
it does say better, and for the latter, as an editor of the specification, I
apologize. 

Some evidently think that the best use of the specification is not the use
to which the HTML WG has put it.  These insights are more productive when
shared as a technical discussion on how namespaces should best be used, not
speculations on the intellectual and moral incapacity of the WG; and are
always best if accompanied by the courtesy of remembering that when people
disagree with you, it is not always the sign of some fault in them.

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa at ic.ac.uk)