xml-dev - Re: Does DTD validation work with namespaces?

["Winchel 'Todd' Vincent, III" <winchel@mindspring.com>]

> > Namespaces are NAME spaces. That's all. Folks read all sorts of other
> > implications into namespaces, and everyone has their own ideas about
what
> > they want to do with namespaces, but namespaces themselves (a) are just
> > naming and (b) make no particular effort to be compatable with DTD
> > validation. There was a fairly explicit assumption that if you were
using
> > Namespaces, you would either work with well-formed documents or with a
> > namespace-aware schema language, _NOT_ with DTDs.

<PaulAbrahams>
> Can one find that "fairly explicit assumption" in any W3C document?  If
so,
> which one, and precisely where?
</PaulAbrahams>

In no way do I mean to "pile-on" but, along these same lines . . . Norman
said today . . .

<NormanWalsh>
> Right. Sorry. This technique only works if all the DTDs in question
> have the "namespace hack" so that, from my example, DocBook elements
> are all in the DocBook namespace and HTML elements are all in the HTML
> namespace.
>
> If the DTDs don't have the namespace hack, mixing them just isn't
> possible.
</NormanWalsh>

It would be nice if someone could draft a "Namespace Hack 1.0" specification
and append it to (or even display it prominently on) the current W3C
Namespace 1.0 specification.  There are a variety of *non-standard* ways we
can all dream up to make this work.  The point of the W3C and standards is
just that -- *standards* -- so we know how to communicate with each other on
the Internet.  That's all I'm after.

Thanks,

Todd