Re: [xml-dev] RE: Namespaces A Mess?

Michael Kay wrote:
> Just look at the xsl-list archives and see the proportion of user problems
> that are caused by namespaces.

Most of the issues you bring up in your (excellent) list are however 
problems that are faced by and large not by end-users trying to use 
namespaces but rather by specification and (lower-level) tool makers.

I think Doug's statement was more from the user point of view. He's used 
namespaces and hasn't found them to be a pain. I think the question he's 
asking, and I've been having the same for quite a long while, is why do 
people who are far from having even scratched the (genuine) 
architectural mess underlying namespaces do find namespaces so hard to 
use nevertheless?

I know that as a spec and tools writer I've cursed namespaces by all the 
divinities in all the pantheons that I could summon, but as a user I've 
always simply luv'd 'em.

> Or, if you were able, look at the minutes of any W3C working group and see
> the proportion of its effort that goes into dealing with the complexities
> caused by namespaces.

This depends largely on the WG, I know a bunch of them that only have 
namespace problems once a year when a newbie joins and thinks s/he knows 
all about XML without having touched one of the specs :)

-- 
Robin Berjon
   Senior Research Scientist
   Expway, http://expway.com/