RE: [xml-dev] XHTML 2 Working Group won't be renewed?

["Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>]

> I have a different view. The DTD is built into XML and not an 
> add-on such as XSD or XInclude. Understanding the DTD is 
> essential to understanding XML. So who's aware of the obscure 
> namespace issue should be aware of the DTD feature of 
> supplementing the document with default values. It's like 
> assuming as a given a child's ability to ride a bicycle but 
> not assuming it can walk.

I disagree. It's possible to have a DTD ignored or substituted by a
different DTD by invoking the parser in a different way. That shouldn't
cause names to be in a different namespace, but it does.

We often see problems where people show us an XML instance and an XPath
expression that fails to find elements in the instance, and it turns out
that there's a sneaky namespace declaration in the DTD silently changing the
namespace of elements in the instance. Unless you're a very experienced user
who has seen this problem before you can spend a very long time debugging
this one.

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay