RE: Choose your namespace (Was : Personal view)

David Carlisle wrote "The _essential_ feature of namespace names is that
that they support
rapid and 100% accurate comparison that does not depend on the parser being
used."

As an editor of the Namespaces Specification, I need to report that I do not
recall that as being "the essential feature" of namespace names.  I do not
find any text in the specification to support Mr. Carlisle's assertion, nor
do I recall any discussions proposing that or any similar idea.  In short, I
do not find any evidence that rapid, parser-independent, 100%-accurate name
comparison was the preeminent goal of the specification.

What the specification does describe as a goal is a means to enable
augmenting element and attribute names so that they can be recognized in a
context wider than their enclosing document type. 

Perhaps one can prove that this goal necessitates that "The _essential_
feature of namespace names is that that they support rapid and 100% accurate
comparison that does not depend on the parser being used." If so, the proof
should be rigorously demonstrated. At present, I find it rather a leap. 

Best wishes,
Andrew Layman