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- From: Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>
- To: xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
- Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 12:39:41 -0600
Tim Bray wrote:
>
> Yes, it's possible, but it seems crystal clear to me that a year or
> so from now, the "average XML document", were such a thing to exist,
> would have namespaces. Office 2000 is full of 'em.
I understand that but I do not think that the consumers of those documents
(whether end-users or "average programmers") will need to go back to the
XML Names specification to understand them.
> RDF is full of
> 'em. And if nothing else, old-fashioned document wrangling is, I
> predict, going to be dipping regularly into namespaces like, for
> example, HTML.
The average HTML user is not going to go to the namespaces specification
any more than they went to the SGML specification. Nor should they.
> Which is why it really is a problem that something that we tried so
> hard to make simple is being perceived (rightly or wrongly) as
> complex and intimidating. -Tim
Namespaces are intimidating for exactly the same reason that things like
XLink and architectural forms are intimidating. Namespaces are abstract.
But when you apply them to a spec, like Office 2000, or HTML, they become
simple to understand. In a particular context, they are simple.
That's why "average developers" should sit back and wait for the context
to develop.
Paul Prescod - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco
"Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did,
but she did it backwards and in high heels."
--Faith Whittlesey
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