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

RE: Registered Namespace prefixes

• To: "'W. E. Perry'" <wperry@f...>
• Subject: RE: Registered Namespace prefixes
• From: Jeff Lowery <Jeff.Lowery@c...>
• Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 13:30:04 -0800
• Cc: "'xml-dev'" <xml-dev@l...>

> My
> point, though, was that the ostensible reason for which we 
> are exploring a
> namespacing scheme is our hope of disambiguating names so 
> that processors may
> handle instance names and the content associate with them in 
> a sensible and
> appropriate way.

I think your point and my point are related, but different.  I'm arguing for
a simpler namespace mechanism, and I think you're arguing for a better one.


> Try as you might you 
> cannot take the
> semantics--in the form of the differing processing which 
> different syntactic
> labels will signal--out of any such registry. 

Maybe this is our argument: I say you can build a registry with entries
meaning:

1) I am unique name
2) I am registered to some entity

What I can't do is prevent semantics from being associated with those
entities.  But that is not the purpose, and is outside the scope of the
registry.

As a matter of fact, you could do away with a registry altogether, and just
have some black box authority that tells you either "that prefix is unique;
you may own it" or "that string is not prefix; try again".  Want to know
what prefixes are registered? Tough! You'll just have to guess.  I do it for
web site registrations every day.

> Simply 
> understood, such a registry
> is a shorthand for the semantics which will be elaborated 
> from processing to be
> chosen on the basis of the syntax registered. 

You can continue to insist on that, but I will continue for now to
respectfully disagree.  Try me again in a few months when I'm grey and wiser
and I might be more receptive.

• Prev by Date: Re: The subsetting has begun
• Next by Date: Re: The subsetting has begun
• Previous by thread: Re: Registered Namespace prefixes
• Next by thread: RE: Registered Namespace prefixes
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread