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Re: Re: URIs, concrete (was Re: Un-ask the question)

• To: Joe English <jenglish@f...>
• Subject: Re: Re: URIs, concrete (was Re: Un-ask the question)
• From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>
• Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 09:37:20 -0600
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: Message from Joe English <jenglish@f...> of "Thu, 01 Aug 2002 18:44:31 PDT." <200208020144.g721iV302017@d...>
• Sender: uche.ogbuji@f...

> 
> David Carlisle  wrote:

> > Thus Simon's and your assertion that putting these attributes into a
> > namespace does not make them global is wrong.
> 
> Right.  It makes them global attributes because "global attribute"
> is defined in [XMLNS] to be synonymous with "attribute with a
> namespace name".  It also makes them "proctological" -- a term I just
> made up, which means simply "must have a colon", and which has exactly
> as much semantic impact on applications as the quality of being "global",
> that is to say, none at all.

Thanks.  This is what I've been trying to say in the past few rounds, and I'll 
admit (and have admitted) that I've been clumsy about it.


> In fact, I suspect that the Best Common Practice of using
> unqualified attribute names for "semantically local" attributes
> (as in XSLT, etc.) has more to do with avoiding proctological
> attributes than with making a lexical or Infoset-level distinction
> between "semantically local" and "semantically global".
> Since [XMLNS] doesn't provide a mechanism for defaulting attribute
> namespaces, using unqualified attribute names saves typing.
> If the Rec had gone the other way, specifying that unqualified
> attributes inherit their namespace name from the containing element,
> the Best Common Practice would have been to namespace-qualify
> all attributes.

Is there a general problem with attributes having namespaces that would lead 
to this BCP?  I don't see it.  Having implemented an XSLT processor, I can 
tell you that it would have made little difference if unprefixed attributes in 
xsl elements carried the XSL namespace.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
Track chair, XML/Web Services One Boston: http://www.xmlconference.com/
Basic XML and RDF techniques for knowledge management, Part 7 - 
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think12.html
Keeping pace with James Clark - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/libra
ry/x-jclark.html
Python and XML development using 4Suite, Part 3: 4RDF - 
http://www-105.ibm.com/developerworks/education.nsf/xml-onlinecourse-bytitle/8A
1EA5A2CF4621C386256BBB006F4CEC

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  • Re: Re: URIs, concrete (was Re: Un-ask the question)
    • From: Joe English <jenglish@f...>

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