Re: Are *relative* URIs as namespace nemes considered harmful?

keshlam@us.ibm.com wrote:

> For me, the critical question -- which _nobody_ was able to answer -- was
> "How can one write an application that performs namespace-aware document
> processing if namespace names are compared after absolutizing." 

Please explain the problem.  Every relative URI reference can be transformed
into an (absolute) URI plus a fragment-id, using a purely syntactic transformation,
no Web lookup required.

In other words, the namespace name "http://www.w3c.org/2000/foobar" can be
declared as "xmlns:foobar='foobar'" from a document located at
"http://www.w3.org/2000/demo.xml".

The transformation from "foobar" to "http://www.w3c.org/2000/foobar" is purely
syntactic and rule-bound, assuming that you know where the document was
fetched from in the first place.

So you write your application in terms of namespace names which are absolute
URIs, possibly with fragment-ids as well, and you depend on absolutizing
to match with namespace declarations that are relative URI references.

-- 

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)

Received on Tuesday, 16 May 2000 13:19:22 UTC