Re: [xml-dev] Lessons learned from the XML experiment

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

> 
> But the question is; Are namespaces in XML broken?
> 

Frankly, software people should stop using the word "broken". It has emotional impact but little real meaning.

Namespaces are complex. They make things that should be easy difficult. They may also make things that are difficult (like Hans-Juergen's schema-merging task) easier, but that's a poor design trade-off; if we optimize for complex tasks then we will lose out to competitors that optimize for simple tasks.

Michael Kay
Saxonica