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RE: The prefix "fgdc" for element "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
• To: "'Nassar, Anthony'" <ANassar@H...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:49:19 -0000

The Namespaces REC chose to describe the names that aren't associated with
any namespace as being "not in a namespace", rather than as being in some
default unnamed namespace. I consider that decision perverse because it
achieves nothing other than making it harder to talk about names and
namespaces. It doesn't change the set of conforming documents or the
behaviour of implementations, it just means that other specifications are
forced to use elaborate circumlocutions, often requiring separate
explanations for the behaviour of names that are in a namespace versus names
that are not in a namespace, when the language would have been much simpler,
with no difference in actual behaviour, if it had been stated that all names
are in a namespace and one particular namespace has no name.

I gather the decision arose from some metaphysical debate about the intended
semantics of namespaces. I'm no fan of that kind of discussion: it's up to
users, not specification writers, to decide what their data actually means.
Specification writers should confine themselves to describing observable and
testable behaviour.

Michael Kay

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nassar, Anthony [mailto:ANassar@H...] 
> Sent: 12 December 2007 19:26
> To: xml-dev@l...
> Subject: RE:  The prefix "fgdc" for element 
> "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
> 
> I hunted around, and I found this at
> http://osdir.com/ml/text.xml.schema.devel/2006-04/msg00001.htm
> l: "The schema spec (like XSLT) generally treats the 
> set-of-names-in-no-namespace in the same way as a namespace, 
> despite the perverse insistence of the Namespaces Rec that 
> this set of names is not a namespace at all." Dr. Kay, when 
> you say "perverse," are you being ironic, i.e. you admire the 
> recommendation's insistence, but agree that it's 
> unenforceable, or you disagree? 
> 
> Fwiw, Bjarne Stroustrup writes of the "pollution of the 
> global namespace" wrt using-declarations in C++. 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nassar, Anthony [mailto:ANassar@H...]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:54 AM
> To: xml-dev@l...
> Subject: RE:  The prefix "fgdc" for element 
> "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
> 
> I'm pretty sure that this has been explained to numerous 
> newbies, but I have to ask again. I've been asked to "do 
> something" about the Nunit test results schema, which starts 
> out like this:
> 
> [snip]
> 
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• Follow-Ups:
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    • From: "Nassar, Anthony" <ANassar@H...>
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• References:
  • The prefix "fgdc" for element "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
    • From: "Timothy Lepczyk" <tlepczyk@w...>
  • Re: The prefix "fgdc" for element "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
    • From: "Anne Thomas Manes" <atmanes@g...>
  • RE: The prefix "fgdc" for element "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
  • RE: The prefix "fgdc" for element "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
    • From: "Nassar, Anthony" <ANassar@H...>
  • RE: The prefix "fgdc" for element "fgdc:fgdc" is not bound
    • From: "Nassar, Anthony" <ANassar@H...>