xml-dev - Re: URI's in namespaces

[Philip Nye <philipnye@freenet.co.uk>]

Paul Prescod wrote:
> 
> "Jeffrey E. Sussna" wrote:
> > ... Why
> > not just make namespace targets ordinary XML names?
> 
...
> The reason we traditionally manage our URI namespace is because we want
> to manage the description of retrievable resources. Therefore, if we USE
> our pre-existing URI infrastructures then we will always come up with
> URIs that look suspiciously (and confusingly) like URLs. They will
> always be based on domain names and we know that domain names change
> hands.
> 
> If we DO NOT use these infrastructures, then we can come up with more
> persistent, less confusing namespaces, but then we've lost the whole
> benefit of using URIs! For instance, there is no reason that we should
> use http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform instead of the less confusing
> www.w3.org.1999.xsl.transform since neither one really follows the W3Cs
> website structure ANYHOW.

Further to this argument - managing URIs within a domain is largely self
enforcing when the URI resolves directly or indirectly to a concrete
resource - management is done implicitly. When the requirement is simply
to reserve a worldwide unique name, enforcing the mechanism is an
explicit management task - because of this the infrastructure may well
not exist at all and is certainly open to errors and abuses.

Philip Nye
--
Engineering Arts
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tel +44 (0)1202 418236  ~  fax +44 (0)1202 418676
mailto:philipnye@freenet.co.uk


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