Another look at namespaces

[Marc.McDonald at Design-Intelligence.com]

> At 03:24 PM 9/17/99 -0700, Marc.McDonald at Design-Intelligence.com wrote:
> 
> >. In particular, why should XHTML
> >go off and decide a mechanism  to solve a problem which is a general XML
> >problem and is being worked on by the schema group?
> 
> We didn't decide someone else's problem. We took a work in progress and
> used it as the basis of *one* aspect (out of several) for our decision on
> the namespace issue. 
> 
> Ann
> 
> But that is jumping the gun - part of a work in progress  is in a proposed
> recommendation. 
> 
> Things can change before it is a recommendation, particularly when the
> only published document on schemas is a requirements document, not even a
> working draft or proposed recommendation status. 
> 
> I can show you a lot of XML files that used the wrong capitalization for
> XML declarations because it was changed with the official 1.0 release. XSL
> has changed between versions. The URI for RDF has changed with the final
> release.
> 
> I seem to remember some rather explicit language in the status of document
> section of working drafts:
> 
> "This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by
> other documents at any time. While we do not anticipate substantial
> changes, we still caution that further changes are possible. It is
> inappropriate to use this document as reference material or to cite it as
> other than 'work in progress'". 
> 
I would think using something that hasn't even reached 'work in progress'
status and putting it in a proposed recommendation is far more problematic
than using a working draft as reference material.

Again, from the rationales I've seen, you aren't really using namespaces as
defined by the spec. You are trying to define XML modules which is not part
of namespaces but I would think are part of the schema group's task. 

I don't mind the XHTML DTD broken into modular pieces, just don't talk about
namespaces at all. The general XML solution will apply equally well to XHTML
modules when it is developed.



Marc B. McDonald
Principal Software Scientist
Design Intelligence, Inc.
1111 Third Avenue, Suite 1500
Seattle, WA  98101
marc.mcdonald at design-intelligence.com
Ph: 206.343-7797
Fax: 206.343.7750

http://www.design-intelligence.com

P. S. Cops or Crooks? Isn't it more important which you choose than us ;)

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