OT Re: [XML-SIG] XBEL / Call for extension

[Uche Ogbuji]

On Fri, 2005-01-28 at 20:26 +0000, Frans Englich wrote:
> On Friday 28 January 2005 20:09, Uche Ogbuji wrote:
> > On Fri, 2005-01-28 at 16:50 +0000, Frans Englich wrote:
> > > This is my opinion.
> > >
> > > If I were to design XBEL from the ground up I would have put it in a
> > > namespace. Doing it at this point would be done in the name of somekind
> > > of "XML-correctness". While it itches to suggest it, I don't think it
> > > justifies all the compatibility havoc it creates.
> >
> > Namespaces don't really have anything to do with XML correctness.
> 
> What do you mean by "XML correctness"? :)

That's easy.  Strict conformance to the XML 1.0 specification, Third
Edition in particular.  The specification defines conformance criteria.


> >  I
> > think this is a popular misconception.  Namespaces are meant to solve a
> > particular problem in XML.  Many argue it makes a hash of the solution
> > (I'm somewhat in the middle), but I think everyone would agree that if
> > you don't have the problem, there is no need to complicate things by
> > using namespaces.
> 
> I stay neutral, but have a question: in what situation should namespaces then 
> be used? E.g, why is XHTML in a namespaces? Because it may be combined with 
> other vocabularies? Any other reason?

That is the *only* reason.  believe me.  I've been in all the wars.  And
even that reasoning has been widely debated.

I've never seen a single application of XBEL embedded in another
vocabulary.  Even if I had, I would advocate namespace-free for an XBEL-
only document, with an namespace only to be used in embedded cases.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
Use CSS to display XML - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/x-dw-x-xmlcss-i.html
Introducing the Amara XML Toolkit - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/01/19/amara.html
Be humble, not imperial (in design) - http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=10286
Querying WordNet as XML - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think29.html
Manage XML collections with XAPI - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-xapi.html
Default and error handling in XSLT lookup tables - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplook.html
Packaging XSLT lookup tables as EXSLT functions - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplook2.html