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Namespace Definitions: Cracks!

• From: "Sean B. Palmer" <sean@m...>
• To: xml-dev@l...
• Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 17:37:23 +0000

I said that the most important problem of using namespaces as SW
architecture is that they aren't definitive. TimBL noted that "a langauge
definition = a namespace", and that there are "problems in defining
langauges":-

[[[
(There is currently (1999/9) much debate in the XML world over exactly what
defines a language, the proposed answers ranging though: the publisher of
the namespace including any information in the definitive schema; a
separate note of a schema; a schema plus a different namsepcae URI document
plus a version plus an HTML profile; and "nothing". If this debate resolves
itself such that athe identity of a language is not clearly defined. In
that case the XML namespace mechanism may prove an insufficiently firm
foundation for the semantic web, or any application of data on the web.)
]]] - http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Meaning.html

I don't like to say "I told you so" but (there's no way I can finish this
sentence); read on:-
O.K., so how do we define a langauge, and therefore namespace? I argued
that we dereference it and look for a schema who's namespace eventually
points to a self-describing Schema (such as XML Schema), but I'm beginning
to think that the foundations of Web architecture are a quagmire of doubt
and uncertainty.
Now it's everyone elses turn to say "I told you so" at me...

Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
http://uwimp.com/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ [ERT/GL/PF]
"Perhaps, but let's not get bogged down in semantics."
   - Homer J. Simpson, BABF07.

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