xml-dev - RE: Irony heaped on irony

[Ron Daniel <rdaniel@metacode.com>]

I strongly agree with David Megginson when he says:

> The schema
> for schemas (and others) should reference an XML schema for the xml:
> Namespace using the xsi:schemaLocation attribute, as in
> 
>   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace
>  
> http://www.w3.org/XML/Schemas/xmlschema-20000518.xsd"
> 
> 
[Ron Daniel]  

I very commonly construct DTDs (and assume I'll be doing
Schemas RSN) that mix and match elements from multiple
namespaces. They regularly feature elements from the
RDF, Dublin Core, and XHTML namespaces, plus some
custom elements from customer-specific namespaces.
A particular mix is chosen to meet a customer's needs,
and the DTD enforces the constraints of a particular
mix. The Dublin Core may define dc:Description, but
that has nothing to do with whether paragraph breaks
will or won't be allowed in those descriptions.
XHTML defines a way for me to indicate paragraph breaks,
but it can't know in advance if a particular customer
will or won't need images and tables in their Dublin
Core Descriptions. These specific constraints are the
role of the DTD and schema, not the namespace.

Lets keep the space of names and the syntactic constraints
on particular document classes as very separate things.
Merging them will reduce, not enhance, the ability to
mix and match elements from multiple namespaces in order
to meet people's needs.

Regards,
Ron Daniel Jr.
Metacode Technologies, Inc.
139 Townsend Street, Suite 100
San Francisco, CA  94107
415.836.7813 fax 415.222.0150 
rdaniel@metacode.com



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