[XML-SIG] expat namespace_separator in Python 2.1

Daniel "eikeon" Krech eikeon@eikeon.com
Tue, 24 Apr 2001 11:41:53 -0400


>   This sounds like it would be ambiguous -- consider:
>
>        <foo xmlns="bat" xmlns:baz="ba">
>          <baz:tfoo/>
>        </foo>
>
> would give you the elements batfoo and batfoo.

With no separator (aka '') there is some information loss, as you no longer
know what part of the name was contributed by the namespace and what part by
the local name. For our application of the parser we currently do not use
this piece of information and so the information only becomes a burden on
us.

Even with the ambiguity its seems fairly heavy handed to enforce at such a
low level. Often when the degenerate boundary cases are handled in a
consistent manor... it is a good thing. What are the benifits of being heavy
handed at the lower level?

IMHO, it would be really nice if batfoo and batfoo where the same. Does
anyone know if this is or is not the case? Or is it application specific as
to wether or not they are?

-eikeon