Re: [xml-dev] Same namespace for XSD and RDF

[Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>]

On Thu, 2012-07-26 at 13:55 +0200, Freek Dijkstra wrote:

> At least is seems that RDF and XML use namespaces in a different way.
> Just to verify, consider the statements:
> 
> <ns:element xmlns:ns="http://example.net/myschema/"; />
> <ns:ent xmlns:ns="http://example.net/myschema/elem"; />

In XML all this tells you is that "element" is part of a vocabulary
identified by the first URI, and that ent is part of a vocabulary
identified by the second URI.

Generally XML practice leads to documents containing relatively few
namespaces - three or four, sometimes a dozen, and in very rare cases as
many as fifty. RDF practice can introduce thousands, becaue RDF
considers namespaces to be connected to content, not just to the format.

Really, an XML/RDF document ought to have just one namespace to identify
that the format is RDF, and that's all.

But RDF people think of namespaces differently.

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
Co-author, 5th edition, "Beginning XML", Wrox, July 2012