ACTION-113: Suggest text re versioning and namespaces

We had occasionally talked about the namespace policy in XML  
Signature, [1]:

> No provision is made for an explicit version number in this syntax.  
> If a future version is needed, it will use a different namespace.  
> The XML namespace [XML-ns] URI that MUST be used by implementations  
> of this (dated) specification is:
>

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#"

> This namespace is also used as the prefix for algorithm identifiers  
> used by this specification. While applications MUST support XML and  
> XML namespaces, the use of internal entities [XML] or our "dsig" XML  
> namespace prefix and defaulting/scoping conventions are OPTIONAL; we  
> use these facilities to provide compact and readable examples.
>

There was a bit of confusion about what the phrase "If a future  
version is needed" means.  I propose that we write the following in  
version 1.1:

> No provision is made for an explicit version number in this syntax.   
> As for XML Signature and XML Signature 2nd Edition, implementations  
> of this specification MUST use the following XML namespace URI:


>   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#"


> This namespace...

> If a future version of this specification requires explicit  
> versioning of the document format, a different namespace will be used.


1. http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/#sec-Versions

Thoughts?
--
Thomas Roessler, W3C  <tlr@w3.org>

Received on Sunday, 11 January 2009 14:46:47 UTC