Re: [xml-dev] linking, 80/20

From
John Cowan <>
To
Date
2002-08-19T21:26:53Z
ID
<>
Thread
Re: [xml-dev] linking, 80/20
Elliotte Rusty Harold scripsit:

> >Naah.  Namespaces are designed to prevent name collisions and that's it.
> >Anything else is all in your head.
> 
> That's the common refrain, and it may be true historically, but in 
> practice I don't believe it. The primary use I see for namespaces is 
> to quickly and easily recognize elements from particular 
> vocabularies, even in the absence of local name conflicts. Resolving 
> name conflicts is actually quite rare.

I agree with that at the level of element types and attribute names.
I don't agree at the level of documents, which is the level Len was
talking about (and I suspect you don't either): there is no such thing
(except by accident) as "a document in a namespace".  Multi-namespaceness
is the true nature of XML documents.

-- 
John Cowan       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        <>
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  `Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)