[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: RE: James Clark: XML versus the Web
On Wed, 1 Dec 2010 08:17:52 -0800, Rob Koberg wrote: > Namespaces are fine (and extremely useful!) for dev users and end > users (who usually don't see it). It was my understanding that > namespaces are/were hard for the parser developers. The discussions on > this list commingle the concerns of the parser dev, the xml dev and > the end user so that the real concerns of the parser dev become > adopted as proof for the others. bzzzzzzzt. Since I started the subthread on namespaces, I feel compelled to reply. Neither I, nor the various people that I have had to explain namespaces to, are parser developers. We are developers, consuming and emitting XML. I have internalized the bizarreness of XML namespaces--to some degree, in any event. It's only when I have to explain them to a developer who just doesn't care, and just wants to get the job done, that I become aware of how bizarre the rules are. <x xmlns="xyzzy"> <y a="z"> <z /> </y> </x> <x> <y a="z"> <z /> </y> </x> Choose Joe Random Developer, and explain to them why each element in the first instance above is an entirely different element, with a different name, from the "obviously the same" element in the second instance. Now, having explained the difference between elements in no namespace and elements with a default prefix, explain that the attributes are in no namespace for a completely different reason. 5) drink heavily Now, I am *not* challenging that namespaces are useful. It's just that they're broken, in several ways. Perhaps I should post a "The Problems with Namespaces" thing. And it isn't that they can't be made to work, it's that they're are either unintuitive or counterintuitive, and painfully difficult to explain to newbies. I'm not a newbie; I tend to like them ... until I have to explain them to someone. 'kay? Amy! -- Amelia A. Lewis amyzing {at} talsever.com Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live. -- Dorothy Parker, "Resume"
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