Re: [xml-dev] Global or shared namespace?

[David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net>]

> Can I plead confusion here?

Wouldn't be the first time someone did that on
xml-dev with respect to namespaces ... wanna
take bets about it being the last time?  ;-)


> 1) What is meant by "xmlns isn't a namespace at all"?

See "Namespace Constraint:  Prefix Declared" in the
namespaces REC (section 4).  Last sentence:  "The
prefix xmlns is used only for namespace bindings and
is not itself bound to any namespace name."

The story I got when I pushed on that was that it was
intended to be just a magic token.  Perhaps if it were
to be viewed as a namespace, people would expect
some formal definition, and to be able to add elements
and attributes to it?  (Just guessing, I don't know.)

    <xmlns xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/' 
            xmlns:my='http://www.example.com/xmlns'>
        <element name="my:element">
            <!-- what goes here? -->
        </element>
        <attribute name="my:attribute">
            <!-- what goes here? -->
        </attribute>
    </xmlns>

> 2) What is the incompatibility? Is the question one of how "no
> namespace" is represented in the info set?

Nope -- how namespace declarations are represented.
The text above places some requirements on representations.

For "no namespace" -- didn't we just recover from a discussion,
not very long ago, about W3C Schemas and how "local"
elements, not in a namespace ("no namespace"), are special?


> 3) How does DOM L2 not conform to the NS Rec?

It puts namespace declaration attributes into a specific
namespace, contradicting a requirement (in the text
quoted above) in the namespace REC.


I hope that helps to unconfuse you ... :)

- Dave