Re: namespace usage as assertions

John Cowan wrote:

> keshlam@us.ibm.com wrote:
>
> > [W]e have to
> > define namespaces as matching if and only if we're sure their URIs match --
> > that is, if the two names are precisely string-equal.
>
> But!
>
> You are blurring the question for which this list was defined: do two namespaces
> match if their *URI*s are string-equal, or is it if the *URI references* through
> which they were specified are string-equal?  That is "absolutize" vs. "literal".
>
> > The best way I know to simplify these points for pedagogical purposes --
> > and to simplify and speed up the implementations of this logic -- is to say
> > "The URI is just compared literally". This continues to bias me heavily
> > away from the Absolutize behavior.
>
> Au contraire, it *is* the Absolutize behavior; you are kicking the ball into
> your own goalposts.  The Literal behavior is that the URI references are
> compared literally.

There's something very worrisome here when two such smart, articulate, and
well-informed people have such a basic disagreement, not about what ought to be,
but about what is.

Paul Abrahams