Simon,
The feature isn't useless. Most people agree that attributes are meant for annotating elements. The Namespaces in XML recommendation allows authors to choose between context sensitive attribute values E.g.
<myns:Parent name="must be a number between 1 - 100"><myns:Child name="can be any string"/></myns:Parent>
or creating global attributes that represent the same idea regardless of what element they appear on
<myns:Parent myns:id="must be unique in document"><myns:Child myns:id="must be unique in document"><></myns:Parent>
-----Original Message-----
From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:]
Sent: Wed 7/31/2002 3:10 PM
To: Tim Bray
Cc: XML DEV
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Re: URIs, concrete (was Re: [xml-dev] Un-ask the question)
Tim Bray writes:
> And yes, it is obvious that an attribute can draw the bulk of its
> semantic import from the namespace it's in, rather than the context of
> the containing element. Consider
>
> <anyOldElementAtAllIDontCareWhich xml:lang="fr">Bonjour! ...
Yes, and you've completely missed my point yet again. I'm not arguing
that prefixed attributes should be in the namespace of the element
containing them. I'm arguing that _unprefixed_ attributes should be
treated as if they had the same namespace as the element containing
them.
> There's a technical term for Simon's argument in this case: "wrong".
There's a technical term for the Namespaces in XML Recommendation, but
I'm afraid it's unprintable. I stand by my claim.
I'd like to propose that it's past time to fix these issues instead of
leaving them to fester.
--
Simon St.Laurent
Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
Errors, errors, all fall down!
http://simonstl.com
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