xml-dev - Re: Schema at XML namespace URI to change

[Jonathan Borden <jborden@mediaone.net>]

Len


> This is confusing.  The problem of mime types
> for the metalanguage has been discussed for
> a long time now, even when XML itself was
> being specified and prior to that when
> it was proposed that SGML application
> languages be specified as notations.  What
> issues have held up work in this area?
>

    The 'problem' with IETF certified MIME types is that each MIME type (or
group of types) needs to move through the IETF process. A major advantage of
namespaces is that they are available to anyone who can create a URI. Using
the DNS system, a registration and resolution mechanism exists today,
problems and all, and software (e.g. web server) exists that can resolve a
URI, parameterized by a MIME type via the Accept: header, into a document.
    Alternatives such as Notations and FPIs have been proposed and specified
but as of today no pervasive infrastructure exists to resolve an FPI into a
document. So we have a alternative: a system which has problems but
basically works much of the time, or a theoretically better system which
hasn't been deployed.

Jonathan Borden
The Open Healthcare Group
http://www.openhealth.org