xml-dev - Re: Namespace question: Do attributes inherit the element's namespace?

[Bob Kline <bkline@rksystems.com>]

On 6 Jan 2000, David Megginson wrote:

> You're not alone -- this point has caused as much confusion as any
> other in the Namespaces spec.
> 
> Remember that Namespaces have to do simply with identification (this
> is an A) and distinction (this is not a B); they don't say anything
> about what A and B mean.
> 
> Basically, then, the main question was whether the attribute names in
> the following two examples are identical:
> 
>   <html:a href="foo">
> 
> and
> 
>   <html:a html:href="foo">
> 
> For most applications (such as RDF, and, possibly, XSL), the answer is
> a firm 'no', but the WG decided to make it *possible* to distinguish
> the two in case anyone ever thinks of a good reason to do so.
> 

I'm feeling a little lost in the medieval subtleties here.  Can you
explain what the meaning of "distinguish" is in this context?  What's
the difference between saying "these two examples are not identical" and
"we can distinguish between these two examples"?

-- 
Bob Kline
mailto:bkline@rksystems.com
http://www.rksystems.com


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