Re: [xml-dev] What's wrong with namespaces? Some observations andsuggest

[Amelia A Lewis <amyzing@talsever.com>]

On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 01:18:58 +0100, Bjoern Hoehrmann wrote:
> What was so difficult to understand about the diagnostics messages she
> got from the tool she was using? Surely it noted there are no "html"

What diagnostic messages?  The expression matched nothing.

> elements in the document but there is a {"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml";,
> "html"} element in the document and that in order to match it, she has
> to setup a namespace binding and use the prefix to match it? Tools do
> that these days, right?

Why do you think that programming tools would do that?  This wasn't 
some consumer-oriented piece of frippery, it was a programming language 
(Python, to be exact).  It didn't match.  That's not an exceptional 
condition.  The fact that it would match if you applied a namespace 
isn't in the purview of the developers of the language to point out, I 
wouldn't think.  Anyone who did it would be certain to get a number
of sarcastic emails saying "*thank* you for the message that tells me
how to match what I don't *want* to match!" (it would be reasonable to
use that expression to check for the (incorrect?) appearance of
non-namespaced elements where namespaced ones were expected, for
instance).  You can't give an error message because an expression
doesn't match anything.  Not matching anything may not be an error.

Besides, as I pointed out, she *had* bound the namespace (to the
default prefix).  Not that XPath cares.

Amy!
-- 
Amelia A. Lewis                    amyzing {at} talsever.com
The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.
		-- Miles Vorkosigan