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Re: Back to basics: a few questions about colons in XMLnames

• From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:21:39 +0000

On 08/11/2010 20:55, Amelia A Lewis wrote:
> The XML specification reserves colon.  So it can't be used in a name,
> unless another specification on top of XML permits that usage.
>

Um, no. The XML grammar allows names containing (multiple) colons. It 
contains a Note:

The Namespaces in XML Recommendation [XML Names] assigns a meaning to 
names containing colon characters. Therefore, authors should not use the 
colon in XML names except for namespace purposes, but XML processors 
must accept the colon as a name character.

It's a "should", not a "must". If you are foolish enough to ignore this 
advice, your document will be parsed successfully by an XML processor 
that is not doing namespace processing.

The word "reserved" may have been used in earlier versions of the XML 
1.0 spec to suggest future intentions. Those future intentions are now 
in the past.

Michael Kay
Saxonica

• References:
  • Back to basics: a few questions about colons in XML names
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
  • Re: Back to basics: a few questions about colons in XMLnames
    • From: Evan Lenz <evan@evanlenz.net>
  • Re: Back to basics: a few questions about colons in XML names
    • From: Stephen Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>
  • Re: Back to basics: a few questions about colons in XMLnames
    • From: Amelia A Lewis <amyzing@talsever.com>