RE: namespace rules for functions and variables still confusing

>   - it sounds odd that "All variable names declared in a
> library module *must be
>     explicitly* qualified by the namespace prefix of the
> module's target namespace."
>
>     Wouldn't it be simpler to force this namespace if no
> prefix is specified ?
>     This is a common practice in most programming languages.
>     that is, in the following example the variable $v would
> be automatically in
>     namespace X:
>
> 	module namespace x = "X";
> 	declare variable $v { ... }

In many programming languages, and in XMLSchema as well, declared symbols
automatically belong to the module (namespace, package, ...) in which they
are declared, without requiring further qualification. Qualification is only
required when refering to those symbols. It seems to me that library
functions and variables names should not need to be qualified during their
declarations. This would automatically enforce the rule that the namespace
of variables and functions must necessarily match the namespace of the
module in which they are declared.

Similarly, the use of the "local" prefix should be limited to the references
to locally-defined user functions. The user should also be free to declare
the local function namespace as default function namespace, thus allowing
the use of unqualified user functions.

Antoine Mensch

Received on Tuesday, 3 February 2004 11:47:58 UTC