[Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries]

  • From: Tony Coates <Tony.Coates@r...>
  • To: xml-dev@l...
  • Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 10:19:13 +0100



On 02/05/2001 23:29:50 Warren Hedley wrote:

>I'm wondering if anyone on the list has any strong opinions about
>the use of namespaces for versioning. In particular, am I likely
>to run into any problems if I base my namespaces on the Dublin Core
>format shown below?

I have a strong opinion that namespace URIs should be explicitly versioned.  I'm
not against also having the version in an attribute value on the top-level
element, but I see that as a complement, not a replacement.  The problem with
"canonical namespace URIs" that point to the most recent version of a spec is
that existing applications don't automatically rewrite themselves to fit the new
version of the spec.  An application needs to be able to detect quickly whether
a document uses a version of a schema that it can deal with.  If not, it then
needs to reject it, or pass it on to a different application, or get it
converted to a version that it can deal with.  It is (needlessly) harder to get
this to work properly if the one namespace URI applies to all versions of a
schema.

     Cheers,
          Tony.
========
Anthony B. Coates
Leader of XML Architecture & Design
Chief Technology Office
Reuters Plc, London.
tony.coates@r...
========


-----------------------------------------------------------------
        Visit our Internet site at http://www.reuters.com

Any views expressed in this message are those of  the  individual
sender,  except  where  the sender specifically states them to be
the views of Reuters Ltd.

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Trademarks
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member