xml-dev - RE: power uses of XML vs. simple uses of XML

[Matt Sergeant <matt@sergeant.org>]

On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Gavin Thomas Nicol wrote:

> > I think namespaces is something different - the more people use XML in a
> > variety of ways the more likely they are to need namespaces eventually.
> 
> I'm not sure about that. If you control the application in a given
> domain, then you control the semantics of the encoded data, and in
> such cases, even if you are embedding XHTML in your content, you
> don't need namespaces to tell you that.

I think maybe you missed my point about "a variety of ways". If you're
only using XML in one domain and you don't need namespaces then there's
no need to gratuitously implement them. But work in different
areas/domains and with different technologies and eventually you're going
to run into a need for namespaces, unless you expand your tagset/DTD
beyond all sensibility.

> I think namespaces are really only useful in a limited number of cases
> (where arbitrary embedding is common) unless they are being used 
> gratuitously.

I feel the opposite. Namespaces are incredibly useful for modularisation,
and should be used to ensure that your DTD for one application is
sensible and re-usable.

-- 
<Matt/>

Fastnet Software Ltd. High Performance Web Specialists
Providing mod_perl, XML, Sybase and Oracle solutions
Email for training and consultancy availability.
http://sergeant.org | AxKit: http://axkit.org


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