RE: [xml-dev] Re: determining ID-ness in XML

["Champion, Mike" <Mike.Champion@SoftwareAG-USA.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@ingr.com]
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 5:45 PM
> To: Marcus Carr; Tim Bray
> Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Re: determining ID-ness in XML
> 

> Again, why would xml:id be architecturally superior?  Without 
> answers to that question, there is no reason to continue this 
> thread because the requirement has not been clearly articulated. 

a) It's easy to imagine it having been in XML 1.0 in the first place and can
be added without a major retrofit of anything.  

b) It actually cleans up some things like DOM Level 2's getElementById()
that now has a bunch of weasel words to handle the case where the DOM
implementation has no idea what an ID is.  

c) It leverages the preferred "namespace" prefix mechanism rather than the
semi-deprecated (e.g., in SOAP) DTD internal subset or PI mechanisms. Lots
of people have voted with their feet against these mechanisms that the
alternatives to xml:id depend on.

d) Since the xml: prefix is already reserved, it can't possibly break any
applications that already used xml:id for something.