xml-dev - Re: Treaty of Wulai (was Re: simple question on namespaces.)

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

At 07:55 PM 12/28/00 +0800, Rick Jelliffe wrote:
>Yes, but not to go over endlessly the debates of the past, which was Tim's
>point.  The 1700 emails on the public mail-list about relative URLs followed
>hundreds of emails on private W3C lists and ended up at exactly the same
>point as the private lists ended (deprecation).

I think you're making it sound like that 'point' was actually a conclusion
- I pretty much saw it as the only way out of the mess that didn't require
figuring out whether namespace URIs had meaning and context beyond
identifying strings.  That debate continues to be endless, though...

>I propose instead we have a Millennial Namespaces Treaty of Wulai (named
>after the hot springs where I have been soaking today, looking out at a
>waterfall on the pretty green opposing valley, feeling like a boiling egg
>with no timer), where we all agree that in some limited but important
>circumstances (namespace URI=schema URI) makes sense, and should be allowed,
>even though the general case should not support (namespace URI=schema URI),
>though in no case does (namespace=schema).  Then the discussion would be on
>how to cope with this diversity both hygenically and respectfully.  In
>particular, what should UDDI's role be in all this?

So does this mean you want to formalize what you called the 'lucky dip'
earlier this year in regard to URIs, where there may be times when
(namespaceURI=schemaURI) works and other times where it doesn't?

Your last question about UDDI leaves me sort of wondering, as I suspect
that suggesting UDDI to solve these problems is effectively an
acknowledgment that the problems are bigger than originally thought.  I've
been exploring various IETF URI specs, like DDDS and RESCAP, and wonder if
there might be some useful answers there as well.

Must be a nice hot springs.  I'm off to buy road salt, and lots of it,
personally...

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books