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Re: To namespace or not to Namespace ....

• From: Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>
• To: David <dlee@calldei.com>
• Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:59:37 -0400

On Mon, 2010-04-05 at 18:56 -0400, David wrote:
[...]
> Up until now we've never used namespaces. We've been blissfully 
> unaffected by not using namespaces.   XQuery and XSLT and pure Java 
> programs have had no problem with having no namespaces.   The data is 
> typically in "silos" and while sometimes referenced together, is not of 
> the "module" sort intended to be embedded in other XML documents, but 
> rather fully standalone data (which may reference each other with loose 
> couplings).

> Any *practical* suggestions ?

The primary reason to use namespaces for XML data is for disambiguation.
A secondary aspect of that is to trigger specific behaviour -- e.g. a
generic XML browser recognising mathml or svg.

If you don't have an ambiguity problem, the complexity of namespaces
is simply unlikely to give you any benefit.

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org www.advogato.org

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: To namespace or not to Namespace ....
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>

• References:
  • To namespace or not to Namespace ....
    • From: David <dlee@calldei.com>