Re: 2.1 Must Allow Matching on Default Namespace Witho

> | http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xslt20req-20010214
> | 
> | 2.1 Must Allow Matching on Default Namespace Without Explicit Prefix
> 
> Evan,
> 
> This requirement comes from scores and scores of XSL-List
> questions about users who start with a document like:
> 
>   <foo xmlns="urn:something">
>     <bar>baz</baz>
>   </foo>
> 
> and then try to do:
> 
>   <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="..." xmlns="urn:something">
>     <!-- 
>      | A naive XSLT user expects this to match
>      | their <foo>/<bar> combination from the doc above
>      +-->
>     <xsl:template match="/foo/bar">
>      :
>       <!-- OOPS. But it doesn't match -->
>      :
>     </xsl:template>
>   </xsl:stylesheet>
> 
> To someone like yourself who is an XSL veteran, it may
> never be a mistake that you make, or the workaround is
> so burnt into your brain that you don't think twice about it,
> but the WG perceived this issue as a major "learnability" hurdle.

I don't find this argument convincing.  Every language has things that must be 
learned, and I don't see why this one has sushc special status.  Having been 
told of their error, have we ever come across someone who comes back and says 
"well I can't do what I want to do without using default namespace"?

I think that characterizing this as a "major" hurdle is greatly overstating it.

I think this requirement should be dropped.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                               Principal Consultant
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Fourthought, Inc.                         http://Fourthought.com 
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