[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Acronym spaces, namespaces, and authority (was Re: [xml-de

• To: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
• Subject: Re: Acronym spaces, namespaces, and authority (was Re: WXS acronym?)
• From: ht@c... (Henry S. Thompson)
• Date: 19 Aug 2002 11:15:14 +0100
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <HB74EAKGZT65VT81ZBAB073B3YVL.3d5fa6c6@MChamp>
• References: <HB74EAKGZT65VT81ZBAB073B3YVL.3d5fa6c6@MChamp>
• User-agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.2(beta13) (Demeter)

Mike Champion <mc@x...> writes:

> 8/18/2002 3:38:14 AM, Francis Norton <francis@r...> wrote:
> 
> 
> >>I just think the acronym space is too heavily populated for it to be
> >>much use outside of very focussed groups to use lots of acronyms.
> >>
> >That's a fair point in general, but I don't think it applies once you've 
> >already associated acronyms to a language via file suffixes and 
> >namespace prefixes.
> 
> This is a profound little conundrum we find ourselves in!  
> 
> The idea of an authority such as Microsoft, or IANA, or "general 
> consensus" associating file suffixes to a particular meaning is 
> considered a violation of the principles of the Web by the
> W3C leadership, and the namespaces spec was designed to to 
> prevent such a thing by forcing prefixes to be mapped onto URIs.
> (or "URI-syntax globally unique strings", I don't wanna go there).

Another good reason for not pretending to 'bless' acronyms.  I use xs:
and xsd: alternately as the namespace prefix for
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema precisely for this reason, and
dislike the fact that I am pretty much stuck with .xsd as the file
suffix.

ht
-- 
  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
          W3C Fellow 1999--2002, part-time member of W3C Team
     2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
	    Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@c...
		     URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
 [mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]

• References:
  • Acronym spaces, namespaces,and authority (was Re: WXS acronym?)
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>

• Prev by Date: [ANN] <oXygen/> XML Editor 1.2.2
• Next by Date: Re: XML Schema: At Least One of X Elements Must Appear
• Previous by thread: Re: Acronym spaces, namespaces, and authority (was Re: WXS acronym?)
• Next by thread: Re: WXS acronym?
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread