Re: 3.6. The root element

Hi Anne,

On Aug 1, 2007, at 3:20 AM, Anne van Kesteren wrote:

>
> On Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:54:50 +0200, Robert Burns <rob@robburns.com>  
> wrote:
>> I agree the current draft is more precise. I question whether that  
>> precision is at all necessary. If UAs are required to ignore any  
>> attribute with the name "xmlns" or starting with "xmnls:" then the  
>> value of the attribute is irrelevant.
>
> If the value of the xmlns attribute is not http://www.w3.org/1999/ 
> xhtml the whole XHTML transition idea is false and the author  
> probably made a mistake.

I think it's hard for us to know, in advance, how authors will use  
this. It could be that the author maintains a list of namespace  
declarations on an HTML root element in anticipation of using them on  
another XML root element later on. In processing, the author will add  
a corresponding namespace prefix to all of the HTML elements later  
(when it's turned into XML).

Who knows how this would be used? It just seems a little odd to tell  
authors this attribute is meaningless for text/html, but they better  
make sure it has the right value.

Take care,
Rob