Re: [xml-dev] Invalid attribute names

[Liam Quin <liam@w3.org>]

On Wed, Dec 31, 2003 at 09:37:41PM +0200, Toni Uusitalo wrote:
> At 21:28 31.12.2003, you wrote:
> >An attribute name of ":test" implies a blank prefix name, which is
> >illegal.
> 
> Yes, but couldn't that be treated simply as attribute (or same with element 
> name of course)
> not belonging to any namespace, what's the danger of treating it that way?

The colon is reerved for use by the namespace specification.

Yes, namespaces might have been dsigned differently - but we needed
experience with a flat (local-part, URI) design before introducing
anything more complex.

Currently, the namespaces in XML specification doesn't allow a name
to start with a colon or to contain more than one colon, because it
hasn't assigned a meaning for them.  Furthermore, a name starting with
a colon isn't a legal "name" token in XML, so they syntax doesn't
allow that either.

Hope ths helps,

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin, W3C XML Activity Lead, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/