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Re: Same namespace for XSD and RDF

• From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:01:54 -0400

> At 2012-07-20 17:31 +0200, Freek Dijkstra wrote:
>>Our (standardisation) group has defined a schema, and wants a
>>representation of it in both XML and RDF. For ease of use, we like to
>>use the same namespace identifier, even at the drawback that we can't
>>publish both the XSD and OWL description at that same URL. Both XML and
>>RDF allow a schema name ending in a word (http://example.org/myschema),
>>or add a slash or hash "#" at the end.
>>
>>In particular, what are the EXACT rules for adding or removing a hash
>>(#) at the end of a namespace?
>
> There are none for the general case.  A namespace is a simple URI
> string that is used in conjunction with an element's name or an
> attribute's name to distinguish the construct from other constructs
> with the same name and a different URI string.
>
> Full stop.

Yes, absolutely, with one caveat.  Do not pause to think about this for
very long, or you will quickly find yourself recreating H.P. Lovecraft's
"The Dreams in the Witch House" with minor variations:

-----------------------------------
Whether the dreams brought on the fever or the fever brought on the dreams
Walter Gilman did not know. Behind everything crouched the brooding,
festering horror of the ancient town, and of the mouldy, unhallowed garret
gable where he wrote and studied and wrestled with namespaces and media
types when he was not tossing on the meagre iron bed. His ears were
growing sensitive to a preternatural and intolerable degree...

Possibly Gilman ought not to have studied so hard. The proper relations
between resources, fragment identifiers, and namespaces are enough to
stretch any brain, and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to
trace a strange background of cyberspace reality behind the ghoulish hints
of the Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can
hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension. Gilman came from
Haverhill, but it was only after he had entered college in Arkham that he
began to connect his hypermedia with the fantastic legends of elder magic.
-------------------------------------

It's hard to improve upon Lovecraft, but that seems a reasonable update.

If you want to find out how it went with mere "non-Euclidean calculus and
quantum physics", see:

<http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/dreamswitchhouse.htm>

Thanks,
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com/

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Same namespace for XSD and RDF
    • From: Stephen D Green <stephengreenubl@gmail.com>

• References:
  • Same namespace for XSD and RDF
    • From: Freek Dijkstra <Freek.Dijkstra@sara.nl>
  • Re: Same namespace for XSD and RDF
    • From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>