xml-dev - RE: Comments on Section 2.6 of XML-Namespaces

[Andrew Layman <andrewl@microsoft.com>]

Andrew Marshall wrote: 

"Even in your attempt to rectify this situation with the syntax used in your

last example:
  <Item T.Heat:Temp='5400'/>
You still provide no guarantee that there is a meaning for the attribute 
'Temp' without possible sibling attributes.  Take for example:
   <Item HTML.a:href='mypage.html'>
Does the use of href have any meaning without the 'target' attribute which 
may be implicitly be defined with the default value of '_self'?  Probably 
not."

Thanks for your question, and for reading the document closely.

I think you are expecting namespaces to do more than it in fact does.
Namespaces simply allows you to distinguish the T.Heat:Temp attribute from
the T.Color.Temp attribute.  It does not take on the job of expressing
grammatical rules such as that the T.Heat.Temp attribute must only be used
in conjunction with another attribute, e.g. T.Heat.Units.  Namespaces are
just a named set of names.  Keeping the names distinct is the goal of
namespaces.  Defining the grammar, semantics, etc. of the named things is
beyond the pale.

Best wishes,

Andrew Layman
Microsoft



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