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Oh, that's *beautiful*. </eom> I'm gonna sit here and admire it for a while. :-) Amy! On Sat, 04 Dec 2010 23:24:22 +0000, Michael Kay wrote: > On 04/12/2010 01:34, Amelia A Lewis wrote: >> Heyo. >> >> So, I've been (recently, publicly) critical of the Namespaces in XML >> specification. My summary version: when I try to teach someone who >> doesn't care about XML about XML APIs, it's namespaces where they >> Boggle and Fall Down. > > I agree with this analyssis. > > Elements should have simple (string-valued) names, using hierarchic > naming to achieve uniqueness, and context-sensitive abbreviation to > achieve conciseness. It should always be legitimate to use the full > name if abbreviation is not wanted. > > Hierarchic naming: for example an element might be called > :org.w3c.html.table. > > Abbreviation: this might be abbreviated to "table". How is the > abbreviated name resolved? Using the hierarchic name of the parent > element. So the outermost element gives the full name > > <:org.w3c.html.html> > > and inner elements can use abbreviated names if they are in the same > "namespace": > > <:org.w3c.html.html> > <head> > <title>...</title> > </head> > <body> > <:org.w3c.svg.svg> > <rectangle> > .... > > Of course, this is hopelessly incompatible. Or is it? One could > devise a transition mechanism. If we see something like > > <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" > version="2.0"> > > then we could regard that as merely a quaint old-fashioned way of saying > > <:org.w3c.www.1999.XSL.Transform.stylesheet version="2.0"> > > Hierarchic naming with optional abbreviation works so well across so > many branches of computing, and indeed real life (for example phone > numbers); it's a tragedy that it wasn't adopted from the start. > > Michael Kay > Saxonica > > > > _______________________________________________________________________ > > XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by OASIS > to support XML implementation and development. To minimize > spam in the archives, you must subscribe before posting. > > [Un]Subscribe/change address: http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/ > Or unsubscribe: xml-dev-unsubscribe@l... > subscribe: xml-dev-subscribe@l... > List archive: http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php >
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