OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

 


 

   Re: namespaces discussion

[ Lists Home | Date Index | Thread Index ]
  • From: "Richard L. Goerwitz" <richard@goon.stg.brown.edu>
  • To: xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
  • Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 15:40:26 -0400

Tim Bray wrote:

> >> [W]hy can't...elements themselves [have] a namespace URI which addresses
> >> a DTD entity for that particular element?

> This will never happen.  The namespace URI is just a name.  It would
> be really wrong to assume you can go there and get a DTD
> 
>  1. some namespaces (like HTML, MathML, a few others) are going to be
>     very widely used, and it would be silly to force one poor server
>     somewhere to guarantee a DTD-on-demand for them

Some DTDs will be widely used whether or not one uses them for name-
spaces.  (Deadpan look follows.)

As for namespace URIs being just names:  We're in this deep.  Why not
associate namespaces optionally with DTDs (not necessarily via the name-
space URI)?

>  2. some namespaces aren't going to have DTDs or any other kind of schema

Then they won't validate.  That's all.  Or (lacking an associated DTD),
they could be validated in the kludgy fashion that the current namespace
spec seems to require (i.e., you have to make your DTD aware of all the
new:elements your use of namespaces requires - with allowances for de-
faulting :-( ).

>  3. some schemas aren't going to be DTDs

That's another issue that we will just have to see played out.  To me
it looks as if the people who insist on strict SGML conformance are, in
fact, the ones who are driving the wild proliferation of extensions 
before XML has barely made it out of the gate.

In an ironic twist of fate, they may be the ones most responsible for
DTD and such quickly becoming legacy features.

This may not be a bad thing.  Either way, though, the effort spent on
SGML conformance is starting to look noble but in vain.

-- 

Richard Goerwitz
PGP key fingerprint:    C1 3E F4 23 7C 33 51 8D  3B 88 53 57 56 0D 38 A0
For more info (mail, phone, fax no.):  finger richard@goon.stg.brown.edu

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)





 

News | XML in Industry | Calendar | XML Registry
Marketplace | Resources | MyXML.org | Sponsors | Privacy Statement

Copyright 2001 XML.org. This site is hosted by OASIS