Re: [xml-dev] My proposal: Implicit namespaces

From
Michael Ludwig <>
To
'XML Developers List' <>
Date
2009-08-06T22:11:30Z
ID
<20090806221129.GI816@wladimir>
Thread
Re: [xml-dev] My proposal: Implicit namespaces
Liam Quin schrieb am 06.08.2009 um 17:43:33 (-0400):
> On Thu, Aug 06, 2009 at 10:39:38PM +0200, Michael Ludwig wrote:
> > Liam Quin schrieb am 06.08.2009 um 11:11:09 (-0400):

> > [...] with XSLT used to generate XML, it is questionable to preclude
> > any element from appearing embedded in another vocabulary.
> 
> I don't mean to preclude it.

Sorry - I overstated it. Or even misrepresented your statement.

> > > So, a docbook list would automatically introduce the docbook
> > > namespace for all the elements it contained (until you got down to
> > > ones that implied some other namespace, such as "svg" perhaps).
> > 
> > Voil? the concept of scope reintroduced, isn't it? It's just that
> > now the current namespace is not signalled by a prefix attached to
> > a declaration, but by the last namespace-scope-setting element.
> 
> "last" here means nearest ancestor, like xml:lang and xml:base.

Yes, I meant "last" to mean: nearest ancestor.

> > In streaming mode, you wouldn't know what namespace you're in unless
> > you swim back up the river to find a namespace-scope-setting
> > ancestor.
> You have to keep track of your parents in any case.  And the existing
> namespace mechanism works this way too.

Well, I might be totally wrong (and will then hopefully be corrected),
but to me, Michael Kay's suggestion seems to envisage a namespace
mechanism whereby it is possible to determine the namespace regardless
of the parent and the scope because by virtue of having read the schema
or the - horribile dictu - DTD, it is statically known (I hope I
don't abuse this expression here) what element name belongs to which
namespace.

Best regards,

-- 
Michael Ludwig