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

Re: Namespaces Not Necessarily Unrepentant Evil

• From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
• To: "W. Eliot Kimber" <eliot@d...>, xml-dev@i...
• Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 18:18:09 -0700

At 07:31 PM 8/27/98 -0500, W. Eliot Kimber wrote:
>I still have some concerns about namespaces that I think are legitimate:
>
>1. The use of name spaces alone does not satisfy requirements that an
>architecture-like approach does satisfy

Granted.  Hence the following is serious:

>2. I see some enterprises and people overselling the power of namespaces 

Yes.  Fortunately, at this point most such people collapse instantly
given the slightest technical challenge.  Four words: "Namespaces don't
do that."  It is our responsibility as community leaders to get out there
and make this clear to the world.

>3. The effectively compulsory use of name spaces unnecessarily complicates
>XML parsers and processors. 

I don't buy it.  The extra work is hardly noticeable and I don't
expect it to affect performance in the slightest.

>4. Name spaces take away authorial choice of element type and attribute
>names. 

No, just of the prefix.  I expect that once we have namespace-aware
schemas, they will never contain a prefix, so the document designer
and author should think entirely in terms of <start-time> and <duration> 
and so on, and if when a chunk of that markup gets assembled into a 
package for delivery, if those become <sex:start-time> and <sex:duration> 
who cares?  

>Again, my apologies to those who I badgered inappropriately. 

Not required. -Tim


xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i...
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Namespaces Not Necessarily Unrepentant Evil
    • From: Paul Prescod <papresco@t...>

• Prev by Date: Namespaces Not Necessarily Unrepentant Evil
• Next by Date: Re: Attribute Question
• Previous by thread: Re: Namespaces Not Necessarily Unrepentant Evil
• Next by thread: Re: Namespaces Not Necessarily Unrepentant Evil
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread