AANLkTik_niS137RDPiTQHfv2_L6qhg92x-8gTuEkuFd9@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
How about several colons being allowed in an element name?
The XML spec seems to permit it as XML but is it expressly
disallowed for namespaces?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<a:b:ex:Comment>Hello World</a:b:ex:Comment>
</root>
More curious perhaps would be a double-colon
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<ex::Comment>Hello World</ex::Comment>
</root>
Does the double colon mean it gets past the requirements for
namespaces or that it gets rejected because of the namespace
spec? Or, on the other hand, is it permitted for a prefix to
contain one or more colons?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root xmlns:ex:="abc">
<ex::Comment>Hello World</ex::Comment>
</root>
Best regards
Stephen D Green
On 8 November 2010 19:40, Evan Lenz
<evan@evanlenz.net>
wrote:
See below.
On 11/8/10 10:27 AM, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
QUESTIONS:
1. Are all XML processors namespace-aware? That is, do
all XML processors understand the colon in a name as a
delimiter between a namespace prefix and a local name?
By definition, no. In practice, I hope so.
2.
Are there XML processors that are namespace-unaware?
That is, are there XML processors that treat colons as
just another character?
Maybe, but you shouldn't use them.
3.
Is namespace checking (checking that each prefix is
bound to a namespace) a separate activity from XML
checking? Is there such a thing as a namespace
processor? If so, are XML instance documents first
checked by an XML processor and then by a namespace
processor:
XML instance document --> XML processor -->
namespace processor
No, namespaces were retroactively grafted into the XML 1.0
foundation. They're not properly layered (as perhaps they
should have been).
4.
When we talk about an "XML processor" do we really
mean XML processor + namespace processor"?
In practice, yes.
5.
Consider the task of checking that "ex:" is bound to a
namespace. Is that an XML processor task? Or, is that
a task for a higher-level application; e.g., a
namespace processor?
Yes, it's the namespace-aware processor's task. Not a
higher-level concern.
6.
If the ex in<ex:Comment> is not bound to a
namespace, is that really an XML well-formedness
error?
Not technically. But you might say it's not
"namespace-well-formed". And, actually, I just checked and
there's a reason I used that phrase:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-names/#dt-nwf
Evan
