Re: xslt20/#xhtml-output : suggestion for additional item: "only one ns decl"

Kay, Michael wrote:

> Thanks for the examples, I see now what you are getting at. Your
> "multi-decl" example has a completely redundant namespace declaration on the
> "body" element. [...]


yep


> The current rules don't prohibit a serializer from outputting redundant
> namespace declarations, but I had always assumed that no half-decent XSLT
> processor would do this!


It would be legal, which is a problem.

> Because the namespace declaration is redundant, of
> course, there is no problem asking the serializer not to output it.


Sounds great AFAICS.
Thank you very much for your understanding. From what I've heard, this 
will also be a welcome addition for many other web developers. (more below)


> I'm happy to add a note to the XHTML serialization description advising
> implementors that outputting redundant namespace declarations is a bad idea.


Great! Could that be made normative? I (and probably most other web 
developers dealing with "HTML compatibility" of XHTML) need to be able 
to *rely* on it, 100%. One way to offer this assurance would be to 
specify that it is an error to generate redundant namespace 
declarations, at least when output method="xhtml". It also would be 
problematic if instead of writing out one single default ns decl on the 
root element, the serializer would write out xmlns:foo and prefix all 
elements (I think that would be currently allowed as well).
Basically, I think the only way to satisfy the requirements I 
demonstrated, is to specify it as mandatory (required for conformance) 
that the XHTML namespace in XHTML output is handled like

   <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"

character for character.

You could link to the example given in XHTML Appendix C:

   http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#guidelines
   http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_14

And cite the XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD, which has

   <!ELEMENT html (head, body)>
   <!ATTLIST html
     %i18n;
     id          ID             #IMPLIED
     xmlns       %URI;          #FIXED 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'
     >

and does not allow for any other form or location.

Tobi

-- 
http://www.pinkjuice.com/

Received on Friday, 14 February 2003 17:14:10 UTC