xml-dev - Re: XML Namespace

[James Robertson <jamesr@steptwo.com.au>]

At 07:26 31/08/1998, John Cowan wrote:

  | Steve Dahl scripsit:
  | 
  | > From that, I inferred that prefixes are assumed to lack either
  | > uniqueness or persistence (or both), or else they could have been used
  | > as the namespace name to begin with. This means that it's not impossible
  | > that I might have a collision between two different Namespaces being
  | > associated with the same prefix. In that case, what would I need to do
  | > if I wanted to mix element types from two different DTDs that had the
  | > same prefix but which are intended to be bound to different Namespaces?

  | Learn to relax and live without DTDs.  The new namespace proposal
  | makes them useless anyway, so people are now trying to develop
  | various replacements for them.

Doesn't this statement make people scared?!?

First off, I still remember Tim Bray's statement at the Sydney
XML conference last year, to the effect that he was worried
that having XML without DTDs was going to cause a lot
of problems down the track.

More significantly to me, I _want_ DTDs. The whole point
to me, and to a whole lot of other people, is that SGML/XML
enforces consistency of structure. You need a DTD to
ensure that.

So, great, we can send a whole lot of unstructured tags
(as long as they are well-formed) about the place. What
does this do for us?

We end up with a whole lot of documents that are "XML",
that cannot be converted, published, validated
or anything else that requires structure, because we
don't have a DTD.

Instant legacy data!

Doesn't this worry _anyone_?

Apologies for the rant,

James


-------------------------
James Robertson
Step Two Designs Pty Ltd
SGML, XML & HTML Consultancy
http://www.steptwo.com.au/
jamesr@steptwo.com.au

"Beyond the Idea"
 ACN 081 019 623

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