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RE: Namespace URI question

• To: 'Richard Tobin' <richard@c...>, xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: Namespace URI question
• From: Jeff Lowery <jlowery@s...>
• Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 10:17:39 -0800

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Tobin [mailto:richard@c...]

> >xmlns:foo="file:///foodom.xsd"    

> file:///foodom.xsd is (for retrieval purposes) is the same as
> file://localhost/foodom.xsd, and is an absolute URI referring to a
> file on the machine where the URI is being interpreted (RFC 1738).

Okay, okay... now get it.
 
> It's not a relative URI any more than http://127.0.0.1/~richard is.
> 
> Its interpretation depends on the machine you use it on, but not on
> the current base URI.

So, it's not relative. But localhost is relative. So it's an absolute
address with a "relative" localhost at the root. I'm not trying to argue
semantics, I'm just saying that there is a relative component to this
address. That's not to say that it's a relative URI. 

> On the other hand, it's not a very good namespace name because it
> isn't tied to the author in the way a URI containing a normal domain
> name is.  Someone else might use it with just as much justification as
> you.  As the Namespace spec says:
> 
>   The namespace name, to serve its intended purpose, should have the
>   characteristics of uniqueness and persistence.

Good citation.  

I came across this namespace declaration in a someone else's document (which
I told him to change), but got stuck on the meaning of file:///foo.xsd.  I
see now that the third slash means "localhost", which of course I should
have known but I got mentally blocked on file path representations.  Now I'm
back aboard the clue train.

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