xml-dev - Re: simple question on namespaces.

[Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>]

At 08:56 PM 27/12/00 -0500, Simon St.Laurent wrote:

>Uh, well, because inventing something new (or setting explicit limits)
>would have spared us the serious confusions, still not resolved, over what
>URIs 'mean' when used as namespace identifiers.  Same benefits, but perhaps
>fewer costs.

<rant subject="namespace kvetching" frequency="every 6 months or so">
All attempts to assign meaning to namespace names (which are URI
references) are ex post facto and irrelevant to the aims of the
namespace recommendation, which is to make names unique for
practical purposes in the Internet context.  This is a useful
thing to do, and the namespace recommendation does it.

Once there is some general agreement as to what kinds of 
semantics one might expect to attach to namespaces, and what
mechanisms prove to be the best for expressing those semantics,
then it will be possible to have a useful debate about the
meaning of namespace identifiers.  In the advance of such
agreement, the debate has been, and continues to be, an
outpouring of hot air which could be put to better use this
winter in helping alleviate energy shortages. </rant>

-T