Re: [xml-dev] Why associate an attribute with a namespace ?

[mihaiu@mihaiu.name]

>>From: mihaiu@mihaiu.name [mailto:mihaiu@mihaiu.name]
>>Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 2:15 PM
>>To: Michael Kay
>>Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
>>Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Why associate an attribute with a namespace ?
>>
>>>Sure. Prefix your attribute names with an underscore and they are
>>>guaranteed to be different from attribute names invented by
>>
>>anyone else.
>>
>>I have no intention to define new attributes. That is obvious
>>from my post.
>>
>>I often found that a lot of people get upset when they have
>>to explain their point of view. Have you learn by heart your
>>explanations and you can only blindly repeat what you've been
>>told ? I asked about the rationale behind the decision to
>>allow namespaces for attributes.
>>
>>For your described case (special attributes)  you need merely
>>syntax changes and not namespaces. Are namespaces just syntax ?
>
>
>So if I see _type in a document how do I know whether it is xsi:type,
>xlink:type or daresfunkysemantics:type? If you are going to attempt to
>argue on this list about XML and namespaces it would behoove you to
>understand the problem space first before criticizing existing
>solutions.
>
    Let me ask first: have you read the entire thread, or just the last post ?

    Namespace are necessary for elements, there is no doubpt about it. But an
attribute only has meaning embedded in an element. Namespaces allows you to
uniquely identify elements. From elements you can reach the attributes. You
cannot access the attributes without their enclosing element anyway.

    Let me put the problem from another perspective: is it useful to have
element A in namespace AAA and its attribute B in namespace BBB ?



Regards,
Razvan