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RE: Changing Namespaces Between Specification Versions (was: XI

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
• To: "'Paul Spencer'" <xml-dev-list@b...>,"'Liam Quin'" <liam@w...>,"'xml-dev'" <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:20:54 +0100

> Many people do change namespaces between versions. I prefer 
> not to, but have been persuaded to allow it in the past, 
> where the argument has been that the meaning of a name has 
> changed, so the namespace should change as well.
> 
> Michael, what are your reasons for not doing this?
> 

You want to design things so that transition from one version to the next is
as smooth as possible. Changing the names of 1000 elements because one of
them has changed its meaning ever so slightly is not a good tradeoff -
everyone who has written code to access the other 999 elements is going to
have to change their code. A version attribute is so much less disruptive.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

• References:
  • Changing Namespaces Between Specification Versions (was: XIN: XML implicit namespace definitions)
    • From: "Paul Spencer" <xml-dev-list@b...>