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

["Gavin Thomas Nicol" <gtn@ebt.com>]

> <breath type="deep"/>
> <try_again>If you, as a developer, specialise in XML, and start to work in
> different XML application solutions, domains, areas and technologies, then
> eventually you'll run into a use or need for namespaces.</try_again>

Sure, but I've been developing SGML/XML applications for over 10 years, and
the situations where namespaces are useful aren't that common in my
experience.
There are cases where they're useful, and for specific classes of
application,
even crucial, but these are the minority.

> > Think of it this way: if your application knows nothing about XHTML, and
> > someone randomly embeds <xhtml:p> in the data, what will it do with it?
>
> If it's namespace aware, and it doesn't care about the namespace
> associated with the xhtml prefix, then probably nothing.
....
> This is why apps should try and be namespaces aware by default,
> IMHO. Ignoring something an application doesn't want to deal with is
> probably going to be the right thing to do.

Right, but you don't need namespaces in order to ignore something.

IMHO: There *are* cases where namespaces can be used effectively, but
for *most* applications, they're not necessary. This may change over
time.



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