Re: XML namespaces on the Web

Anne van Kesteren wrote:

> The idea is that "XML5" would replace XML 1.x so that we do not end up
> with yet another dialect. 

So instead of adding something like XML namespaces into HTML and
implement it in a half dozen of web-browsers you asking for changing XML
and implementing changes in tens of XML parsers in use? It is
interesting plan for decreasing unemployment rate, but I don't see why
to add burden to providers of XML toolchain when actually HTML5 is
broken there -- it doesn't provide scoping mechanism for extension
elements/attributes.

Moreover something what is appropriate for web -- non-draconian error
handling and error recovery -- is not necessary appropriate for other
domains -- if you use XML for business data interchange draconian error
handling makes much more sense.

> This and most of the above is quite
> controversial and since I'm personally still not quite sure what problem
> XML namespaces is solving (they appear to have been added mostly for
> RDF)

You should not give so much weigh to one old message from timbl.

> (Another reason I played with XML5 is that in mobile walled gardens one
> can often find non-namespace well-formed XML that is expected to
> processed anyway because less compliant user agents that came before us
> (see also http://simon.html5.org/articles/mobile-results ) processed it
> too.)

I don't think that XML5 is viable replacement for XML 1.0 especially
because it brings non-draconical error handling. So effectively bringing
XML5 onto plate would mean that there will be around three syntaxes --
HTML-like, XML 1.0 and XML5. I still don't understand why web-folks who
are asking for non-draconical error parsing in XML simply don't just add
namespaces into HTML5 and use HTML5 instead?

				Jirka

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